The Spy Family
by Toni
Summary: Siri and Obi-Wan in a Galaxy in which the Jedi are allowed to have attachments and things resemble J.J. Abram's show "Alias" Completed!
1. Chapter 1

A/N Everything Galaxy Far Far Away specific is copyrighted by George Lucas. And Siri belongs to Jude Watson.

Those of you who know the show "Alias" will recognize some lines and situations, especially from the episodes "The Two" and "There's only one Sidney Bristow".

_Eighteen Years before TPM_

Chapter 1

"Simon Tachi, you have been found guilty of espionage against the Jedi Order."

Simon had known this would happen one of these days, no matter how hard he tried to hide it behind Force shields. If he hadn't been for working loyally for K-Directorate for so many years, he'd never had agreed to this in the first place. And then he'd fallen in love - or at least as close as he'd ever come to love – with a Jedi woman. He hadn't wanted to leave his undercover persona after that, especially when he realized that Adi wanted to be with him as well.

His greatest regret was not galactic security and any risk he'd put the Jedi in. It was that he couldn't look his wife and daughter in the eye anymore. Adi had been so furious that she hadn't wanted to hear an explanation. Now he was certain that she considered him the enemy for betraying her beloved Order that had taken him in. Siri was still too young to understand and only knew that her father was gone and wasn't coming back. But they were his family, even if he hadn't been honest with them from the very beginning.

Now that was gone, and he didn't expect to see them ever again. Siri would grow up without him, thinking that her father was a traitor. He wasn't sure how the other Jedi would treat his precocious, curious daughter throughout the Galaxy after this. She wanted to be a Jedi like her mother so much and Simon hoped that dream hadn't been completely dashed by his sending information to K-Directorate.

Stars, he missed both of them already, and he hadn't even started his sentence in galactic prison yet. This was going to be absolutely miserable.

Of course, he probably should have thought of those years before, when he'd agreed to this suicide mission. Thinking that the Jedi would be understanding when they learned about him sending information along would have been so much more naïve than Simon was capable of. But he'd practically grown up on the streets and K-Directorate had rescued him from that and trained him and given him new skills. He felt that he owed them so much for changing his life around and then giving him a family he would have never had otherwise.

But now the passion that they'd shared had given way to utter loathing. At least they were both strong feelings.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N For those of you who were concerned that this story might not get finished like so many of mine, this story is finished! I'm just uploading one chapter at a time. And can't thank my beta LittleVampireBites enough for going on this story journey with me.**

**Chapter 2**

Unlike most of the five year old initiates the Jedi Council gave the puzzle test to, Siri Tachi didn't seem that intimidated by being surrounded by the Council members. Part of this was most likely because her mother was a Jedi and had told her about many meetings she had with them and what was expected during them. But another part of it was that Siri in general rarely seemed intimidated by anything. Even though she was still young, she'd probably explored just about every corner of the Temple. Her mother would never approve, but she didn't care.

Or at least she didn't care until she was caught and her mother was disappointed in her, as she knew from her voice and the way she looked at her. It was somehow worse than if she'd yelled at her, but didn't stop Siri's curiosity for long and she was off exploring again.

But she turned her attention to the Council and what they were saying "Siri, we have a puzzle for you as we want to see how long it takes you to solve it. It's the one we give to all the younglings" said Master Windu, beginning the meeting after Siri's bow He held the puzzle out to her.

"All right," she replied, and walked up carefully. She took the puzzle from his hand and watched it, fascinated.

"How do you play with it?" she asked when she couldn't immediately figure it out.

"That's for you to figure out," he replied, almost – but not quite – cracking a smile.

Siri had the sense that was all she would learn and that she was being dismissed. So she bowed again and quickly left the Council chambers. She was still fascinated with the puzzle, which would clearly take some time to solve. So she didn't give up, trying to move it this way and that.

And after a couple of hours or so of twisting the puzzle into every position she'd thought possible at first and more, she knew that she'd solved it. It certainly made a perfect picture for the first time since she'd been playing with it.

So Siri ran into the Council chambers and held it out for the entire Jedi Council to see. She could tell that they were impressed, even though she watched carefully. She'd wondered before why the Council members seemed to show no emotion, but had never gotten an answer beyond "The Code forbids emotion." So she'd learned to look carefully at the eyes and the edge of the mouth as well as use her senses. She rarely thought she was wrong after the fact.

And what she thought at this moment was that the Council was impressed with how fast she'd completed that puzzle.

"Why, some of us took longer to complete the puzzle when we were younglings," one of the Masters said, confirming what Siri thought. "Your own mother took longer when she was your age."

Siri burst into a smile, something she rarely did. She wanted to be a full Jedi Knight so badly, and this seemed to suggest that she was on the right track. She'd known that her sense ability wasn't something that people outside the Temple had from her disappeared father, but she wasn't sure if that would be enough. Now she had more reason to think she could be a Knight.

So Siri bowed politely, left the Council Chambers, and then let her face open into a huge grin. She knew she wouldn't be able to talk about anything else for the rest of the day and maybe longer and knew she had to find her friends and her mother.


	3. Chapter 3

**7 Years Before TPM**

**Chapter 3**

As Siri Tachi was walking towards the ship, she wondered what exactly she was supposed to say to Taly Fry that wouldn't sound hollow. After all, he'd just been playing with making a homemade radio and had eavesdropped on whatever frequency he could find. How was he supposed to know he'd overhear bounty hunters planning an assassination? And when he went to the authorities, the bounty hunters quickly found out who had reported them. Now his parents had turned him over to the Jedi and she, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi were going to be protecting him while he was waiting to testify against the bounty hunters.

At least Taly had a father. Hers had only sent letters for almost as long as she could remember. Oh, she vaguely remembered that she'd liked playing with him and that he was as blond as she was, but that was about all she remembered from the time he'd actually been living with them. Sometimes it was hard to fathom that they'd ever been a somewhat normal family with a mom, dad, and daughter.

She'd learned why he'd disappeared years later, when her mother felt that she was old enough to understand. Siri was actually rather disgusted at the whole thing, even though she did want the chance to get to know her father at the same time. It was all as complicated as it sounded.

Then there was Obi-Wan. She hadn't spoken to him much since she'd told him exactly what she'd thought of such a promising Padawan even thinking about leaving the Order. She hadn't understood all the reasons why at the time, but she'd assumed that there was no reason good enough to completely change his life when he'd been doing so well.

By the time she reached the ship, everyone else was already there. Taly and Qui-Gon were talking and she could sense Obi-Wan inside the ship.

"Taly Fry, meet Siri Tachi," said Master Qui-Gon, indicating her to the skinny dark-haired boy. "She'll be with us while we find some place to stay until the trial starts."

"Nice to meet you, Siri," Taly said quickly before turning back to Qui-Gon.

"And what about afterwards?" Taly asked him. "Do you really think the bounty hunters will get off my trail after I testify against them? I'm never going to be safe."

This was probably true. "He does have a point, Master Qui-Gon," Siri said. "Has the Order been thinking about his future?"

"We'll find a safe place for Taly," Gui-Gon said. He then turned to Taly. "I promise."

The three of them walked onto the ship to join Obi-Wan. When he turned to look at her, he seemed almost embarrassed that Siri was there at all.

So he hadn't forgotten about what they'd talked about the last time they'd met either. This could make for a long mission. Siri was starting to regret telling him how stupid he was that he could even think about leaving the Jedi.

"I'm glad you're still here, Obi-Wan," said Siri, trying to lessen the tension. He nodded and she could tell he was glad she was at least making an effort.

"Are you ready to take off?" asked Qui-Gon.

The three of them nodded, took their seats, and before they knew it, they were in space. However, they were not sure if they were being followed or not. So after they went into hyperspace, they all started talking about what their plan was and where they were going to go and what they were going to do if they got caught.

"We should fake a crash," suggested Obi-Wan. "Then any bounty hunters after Taly will think we're dead or at least won't be able to make the trial."

"Not a bad idea," said Gui-Gon. "We'll just have to find a suitable planet."

After some time looking over start charts of the area and debating the good parts and bad parts of each, they picked one named Quadrant Seven . It was habitable, but had a low population and some caves they could stay in.

"Hang on," said Obi-Wan when they were close enough to the planet that they could land.  
>"This ride could turn out to be bumpy."<p>

And sure enough, it was a rough ride. The ship went this way and that, careening through space. The four of them held on tight, however, and before they knew it, the ship was on the ground without too much damage. They then got out of the ship and looked around to see where they were and where they were going to stay for the time being.

In fact, they were on what looked like a savanna, with long green and brown grasses all around. There were mountains in the distance, although it was hard for Siri to tell exactly how long it would take for them to get there. At least when they did, they would have a good place to hide if it turned out that they were still being followed by the bounty hunters.

So the four of them made packs with tents, food and so on and headed towards the mountains. There they would let the Council as well as Taly's parents know what was going on and where they were. Then they would have to pass the time until they were scheduled to head back to Coruscant so that Taly could testify.

"Think we're going to get there before nightfall?" Siri asked Obi-Wan. She was careful to ask this in a tone that made it clear she wasn't complaining. It wasn't very Jedi-like to complain after all, and she'd never heard Obi-Wan complain.

"I hope so," he answered. "I don't want to have to keep walking across this savanna for days."

The two of them agreed on that and the tension was broken. Siri decided she was glad the two of them could keep on being friends. They'd probably have to go on at least one mission together after this, and Siri couldn't afford to lose any friends for good – she only had so many friends in the Temple.

This could have been due to the fact that she hadn't had a clan like the initiates who were brought in from non-Jedi families– or it could have been something else. She was a teenager and even she had to admit that was led to popularity among teenagers could be so fickle. This was even true among the Jedi padawans.

Luckily, they made it to the mountains after several hours and while being sure they weren't being followed. Although it was getting dark, they had lights they used to set up their tent and contact the Council and Taly's parents. They were relieved that everyone was fine and that they had at least a preliminary plan.

Then it was time to sit back and relax, and before Siri knew it, everyone was in a restless sleep in the tent.

The next day, Qui-Gon left to see if he could find civilization and get supplies. That's when it happened. Taly decided to go off exploring and let out some pent-up energy and although Obi-Wan and Siri had reservations about him being off on his own, they let him go as long as he promised to return soon. The two padawans started to explore the caves in the mountains and the two found themselves sitting on a rock near a waterfall.

"This is actually nice for a mission on which we're supposedly running for our lives, isn't it?" Obi-Wan asked her.

"It really is nice to just sit here and listen to the waterfall. It's too bad we can't stay longer."

The two met eyes and something clicked in the minds of both of them.

It didn't have to make sense, but Siri was sure she hadn't experienced anything like this before. She'd never noticed how Obi-Wan's voice was to listen to or how his smile and the way he carried himself was attractive. She'd known he was a great padawan, but this was the first time she'd noticed that he was a great man as well.

Her mother would say it was only a crush or infatuation, but Siri knew it was more. Somehow she would always point to this moment later as the one in which she realized that Obi-Wan Kenobi was the man the Force had given her.

And from what Siri could see and sense from Obi-Wan, he was thinking something along the same lines. This made the whole moment even more powerful – knowing so quickly that it was reciprocated.

Without saying anything, he kissed her. She found that her breath was almost taken away and the two kept on going, just appreciating it being just the two of them and having a moment of finding each other in a way they hadn't expected before this. They never wanted the moment to stop as it seemed to be so perfect.

But eventually they realized that Obi-Wan and Taly would be looking for them and tried not to sigh. They slowly walked out of the caves, missing the privacy and that they would never have the same in a Temple full of Force users.

This made Siri wonder how her parents had survived those years being married in the Temple. Well, they had both had good Force shields. That was the only possible way her father had avoided being caught by the Jedi for so long. They must have used them for those times that a daughter does not want to think about her parents having as well.

When they found Qui-Gon, they knew that they weren't ready to say anything about what had just happened. Somehow they knew that they wanted to keep to themselves that they were – Siri used the thought for the first time – in love with each other. At least that was what she thought it was – not that she'd ever been in love before. But she knew love when she'd found it.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you so much for the two good reviews. I promise to keep this one coming quickly. **

Soon enough, Taly had returned with the news that he'd found many trees somewhere nearby which had managed to thrive even though the soil was poor in the mountains. Siri and Obi-Wan took off to collect some wood for the fire. This would actually be interesting as they were never able to have campfires on Coruscant. The two of them glanced at each other whenever Taly, who had insisted on coming with them, wasn't looking.

"Have you ever done anything like this?" Siri asked Obi-Wan.

"What do you mean?" he asked. Sometimes Obi-Wan could answer a question with a question. Somehow that didn't bother her as much now that they were – well, whatever it was that they were.

"Having a campfire in the middle of nowhere."

"No, actually. Has your mother or your Master ever taken you camping?"

"Not at all. That's what makes this special."

They stopped and got back to work as Taly approached, and before they knew it, they were back at the campsite and the four of them were cooking for the first time in a while.

"How much longer do we have here?" asked Taly. He'd actually been good before that about not whining.

"Actually, we should be getting back tomorrow to start preparing your testimony," Answered Qui-Gon.

This made Siri start to wonder what going back to normal life would be like after this mission. Would she and Ob-Wan ever want to be a couple that everyone knew about? Although she had never thought of herself as in a secret relationship, she didn't feel ready to tell anyone yet about the two of them.

And looking at Obi-Wan, neither did he. And maybe the two of them weren't even sure why yet, but they just wanted to keep something so special to themselves for a while.

Or maybe they thought Qui-Gon and Adi would tell them it was only a crush and not to take it too seriously. They didn't want anyone say anything that would, so to speak, burst their bubble.

And Jedi Masters were so predictable when it came to what they would say when two teenagers announced that they'd fallen in love.

In any case, the next day they started back to the ship to find that they'd have trouble before they'd even arrived. Qui-Gon was the first to sense the bounty hunters. Soon the padawans could as well.

"I'm sure they're waiting for us near the ship," he told the three.

"What are we going to do?" asked Taly.

"We don't have any other way off planet," said Qui-Gon. "We'll have to fight them and then take off as quickly as we can."

"What about using the Jedi Mind Trick?" asked Obi-Wan.

"We can try, but they could be too strong-minded," replied Qui-Gon.

They started walking more slowly and the Jedi tried to learn what they could from what they could sense from the bounty hunters. Siri thought that if they tried as hard as they could, they might be able to get them to leave the area around the ship long enough to allow them to take off without getting shot at.

So they did, and it worked. Or at least it seemed too until they returned just as they entered the ship. Of course, they started shooting at the ship, but even blaster bullets couldn't affect it much. Still, their take-off turned out to be a rocky as their landing had been, but at least they made it off planet with minimal damage to their ship and were soon on their way back to testify against the friends of those bounty hunters.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Yes, I know we're doing a lot of skipping ahead. I'll be stopping that soon.**

**8 years later**

Chapter 5

As Obi-Wan and Anakin went through the "borrowed" ship getting excited over every little detail, Siri couldn't help but smile. This sounded like this perfect mission – use the ship that was currently in custody, pretend to be the owners for a while, and talk someone from the Covenant on Ronin into going with them off planet so they could be extradited. How they were going to do this would be the hardest part, but for now they were going to have fun using Slam and Valadon's things, which were very different from their own. Although this made sense, considering that Slam and Valadon were thieves who supposedly had very different personalities from Obi-Wan and Siri, it was still something to actually see in person.

Siri realized just how different the things that Slam and Valadon owned were when Obi-Wan found Valadon's wardrobe and starting going through the clothes he found in there.

"I think you'd look good in this," he said, handing her a miniskirt. He was attempting to keep a straight face, even when Siri rolled her eyes. She'd heard Valadon was a major flirt, and her wardrobe seemed to confirm it.

"Is there anything better in there?" she asked, trying not to sound like she was whining. She just couldn't imagine going around Ronin wearing that and looking even somewhat comfortable.

"It's all just as bad," answered Obi-Wan, trying to sound apologetic. Siri knew very well that he liked the idea of seeing her in these types of clothes. She, however, was thinking Valadon was an absolute embarrassment to their gender as she went through Valadon's wardrobe herself and confirmed that Obi-Wan was right.

Before long, though, she'd found Slam's wardrobe. It was her turn to snort as it was, in its way, just as good for Obi-Wan as Valadon's was for her.

"Look at this," she called, tossing Obi-Wan a brightly colored tunic. He turned up his nose, but put it on afterwards. Trying to be a good sport, Siri put on the miniskirt and one of the matching entirely too revealing tops. And as soon as the two calmed down, which took a little longer than it should have according to the "No emotion" Jedi ideals, they got together with Anakin to decide what they were going to do when they reached Ronin in a couple of days.

"First, we've got to let everyone on Ronin know the Slam gang is here," said Siri. "And then comes the tricky part."

"How to get Jenna Van Arbor to agree to go on a joyride with us," finished Obi-Wan.

"And what do we do if we meet somebody who's met the Slams before?" asked Anakin.

"The Slams have never been to Ronin before, their reputation is just known there, so hopefully we won't," said Obi-Wan. "But we'd have to make a run for it in that case. Most of the beings living there aren't exactly supportive of the Jedi." Which would be explained by so many being on the run from the law.

"Let's pretend we need Van Arbor to get past some sort of biometics security scan," Started Anakin. "I know she's supposed to be about the best at getting through fingerprint and retina scans."

Obi-Wan and Siri thought that was a good idea, and they started searching the Holonet, trying to find the perfect place that used biometric scans and where the Slam gang would want to go. It didn't take long to find a bank vault near Ronin that would only answer to the retina scan of someone who worked there or had an account there. They'd have to promise Jenna Van Arbor a piece of the profits and ask her help in overriding the scans. Hopefully they wouldn't do anything that would make her suspicious before getting off the planet, which, as it was their first time undercover and Van Arbor didn't exactly have a reputation for being gullible, seemed likely.

Before they knew it, they had received permission to land on a docking bay on Ronin, which never asked too many questions about business there. Not having rendition to any other planet in the galaxy meant that many underworlders lived there, and no higher-up on Ronin seemed to mind as long as it was not made obvious right in front of them.

They made their way to the hotel, and Siri was fairly sure that every single young man was watching her in a way that made Obi-Wan look entirely too smug. She forced herself to smile back but was thinking she probably couldn't keep from sighing when the three were alone together. If she kept getting stared at, this was going to turn into a long mission.

At the hotel, they gave the clerk enough money for a stay of several days and the Slam's ID's, which they had gotten from Coruscant law enforcement and put their own pictures on.

"Welcome to Ronin, Slam and Valadon," he said, looking right at Siri. "And what brings you here?"

"We're trying to escape a run-in with the law on Coruscant," Obi-Wan answered.

"That's too bad," said the clerk, looking right at Siri with the look she now thought she'd gotten from half the men on Ronin. "Would you like me to give you a tour of the planet? It's the best in the entire Galaxy."

"That would be great," Siri said, batting her eyelashes. "Why don't Slam and I bring our bags up and we'll set up a time soon?"

"Do you need any help with your bags?" he asked, a little too enthusiastically to be entirely professional.

"No thank you," Obi-Wan answered, and they were on their way up to their floor.

They brought their bags in their room, unpacked a little, and checked for bugs. They didn't see any right away, but they knew they couldn't be too careful on a world like this one.  
>"So how long should we wait before paying Van Arbor a visit?" asked Anakin.<p>

"Let's wait a while or she'll definitely be suspicious, "said Obi-Wan. "And do you know what we can do in the meantime?"

"What?" Siri asked.

"Go on a tour of the best planet in the entire Galaxy," Obi-Wan said, somehow managing to keep a straight face.

A pillow found its way through the air and towards Obi-Wan's head. He had to move quickly to avoid getting hit by it.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

After spending some time at some of the hot spots on the planet, Siri, Obi-Wan and Anakin were just amazed at how quickly word spread that Slam, Valadon, and their thief apprentice were on Ronin after something happened on Coruscant. Although it was sometimes hard for them to always keep in character, they were almost enjoying a chance to be someone different for a while. And nobody seemed that suspicious about what could actually be happening or that they might not actually be the Slam gang. Siri was especially surprised how easy it was to convince everyone that they were really a gang of thieves. She supposed this was possible only on Ronin, where everyone felt unusually safe while escaping from their legal problems.

However, there was no Jenna Zan Arbor in sight at any of the places they went, which meant that the three of them would eventually have to go to her house. None of them were happy about that idea as they had no clue how they would be received by her, but it was an important part of the mission to get her, and then the Covenant.

The day after that realization, they found themselves in front of Zan Arbor's house. It was huge, but uninviting with a fence and barred windows. They rang the doorbell in front of the house and waited.

After a minute, a droid came rolling out. "Mistress Zan Arbor would like to know who you are and what your business is," it told them.

"It's the Slam gang, and we're here to give your Mistress a business offer," said Obi-Wan. The driod went rolling back inside, and soon the gate was opened.

Siri took a deep breath, and then they all went in. They were greeted by Jenna Zan Arbor herself, who directed them to sit on a couch in her spacious living room. There were statues, holopictures, and the furniture was among the most expensive in the Galaxy. As for Jenna Zan Arbor herself, she was tall and thin, with a long face and eyes that seemed as though they could look right through you. Even though Siri didn't know how Zan Arbor could possibly know who they actually were, she found herself getting nervous and wishing she hadn't had to leave her lightsaber in the hotel room to get away with any of Valadon's outfits.

"So, I heard you three were on Ronin," she began. "What is that business deal my droid mentioned that brings you here?"

"We're interested in breaking into a certain bank vault," began Obi-Wan, "except we'd have to disable the retina scan they use as their security."

"And we heard you're the best in the Galaxy about disabling biometics," said Siri. "We'd give you a portion of the profits, of course."

Van Arbor gave her – or was it her clothes - an annoyed look. Well, at least that was different from the looks she'd been getting ever since she arrived on Ronin.

"Is this bank vault off planet?" asked Zan Arbor. Alarm bells started to ring in the minds of all three Jedi.

"Yes," said Obi-Wan. "But we would have you back on Ronin in a couple of days."

"Unfortunately, my skills are only for use by the Covenant right now," said Zan Arbor. "And as you can see, I'm not in need of money. I do wish you three luck with this venture of yours though."

And with that, they found themselves ushered to Jenna Zan Arbor's front door.

"What are we going to do now?" Anakin asked as soon as they were out of earshot.


	7. Chapter 7

A.N. Thanks so much for your reviews, Jedi Kay-Kenobi!

Chapter 7

After spending some time going over their options, they decided that the best thing to do would be to somehow convinvce Zan Arbor that she was being called back to the offices of The Covenant.

"It'll get her of this planet so that she can get arrested," said Siri, "But we'd need The Covenant's password and know how they word messages if we want to be convincing."

"Let's take advantage of still being able to be Slam and Valadon," said Obi-Wan. "We can ask The Covenant for a partnership of some kind and use that to get into their offices. Then we get their password and send a message to Zan Arbor. Then we arrest her when she gets to wherever she's supposedly going on a mission."

It still seemed like a long shot, but Siri and Anakin agreed that it was the best chance they had at this point. And with Anakin's skills and midicholorian count, they had a hunch that they could get the password if they were left alone near one of The Covenant's computers. It was really a shame that they would be sure to be too strong minded to use a Jedi mind trick to make sure that happened. But they didn't suppose an organization like the Covenant would have someone that weak minded - they appreciated having people who couldn't be talked into going against them easily.

The three of them took their time writing the message to make sure The Covenant would be interested as well as to make sure of course that it sounded as though it actually came from the Slam gang. They then waited for a response. When none came right away, they spent time doing what they had been, although Siri was getting even more tired of having to be Valadon all the time and was starting to wonder what would happen if the Covenant didn't get back to them. It wasn't like they had several alternate plans in mind.

However, they did get a cautious reply from them eventually. The message didn't promise anything, naturally, but it was an invitation to go to their offices and talk to them at least, and if everything went well, perhaps they could work together if it was a good deal for everyone.

They knew they would have to prepare for this. After all, they would only get one chance. So they decided to have one of their contacts get a hold of the Covenant when they were inside. Hopefully this would create enough of a distraction that they would be alone next to a computer for a minute – as that was all the time they needed. He was just happy to have a chance to get revenge on The Covenant and liked the idea that he could play an important part in bringing it down.

And at first, everything seemed to be just fine. Siri was nervous as they were approaching the Covenant building. Here it was, a keep cover or risk being shot at situation, and she didn't think for a minute that they wouldn't be at all suspicious. Even though nobody on Ronin had appeared to suspect that they were not actually the Slam Gang, this would be harder as anyone who went into Covenant buildings could obtain evidence necessary to get a warrant for their buildings.

Sure enough, the first thing they heard at the entrance was "Please show your identification," from the guard droid. They were able to show Slam and Valadon's actual IDs, which had been confiscated by Coruscant law enforcement when they were arrested. The droid led them into a room with bars on the windows and of course, with no computer. Then they were told to wait until the Covenant representative was ready to talk to them. From what Siri could sense from Obi-Wan and Anakin, they were just as nervous as she was, and that didn't happen easily. They had no way of knowing what was going to happen next, and in a place like this, that was rarely a good thing.

Finally, one of the Covenant agents came in to talk to them. "The Slam gang. I must admit the idea working with such a well-known gang of thieves is intriguing. We could use people like you. But we need more details of the plan you have – that is, how exactly we can help each other."

"Of course," said Obi-Wan. "As we explained to Jenna Zan Arbor, we're looking for someone who can disable the biometrics system of a certain bank vault. However, she said that she is working for you and would rather not leave Ronin."

"She absolutely is working for us," he said. "And we don't want to order her to leave a planet that she feels comfortable on. If you offer enough of a percentage of the profits, however, we may be able to find someone to work with you."

"We can offer a generous percentage of the profits," said Siri. "But we hear that Zan Arbor is the best at disabling biometric security. Do you have anyone as good as she is?"

"We do have a man who is quite capable of disabling biometric scans," he said.

This was an interesting development. "Would we be able to meet him?" Siri asked.

"Of course. He's here now. Why don't you come in and you can talk to him about this plan of yours? If he's interested and you three check out, we may be able to work together."

He then started to lead them further into the building. The three of them couldn't look at each other while heading in for fear that they'd give their excitement away. They managed to stay calm and professional when they realized that the new room they'd be waiting in did in fact have a computer.

"I'm going to get him," said the man. "Just stay here and he'll be right in."

"Keep your lightsabers ready to go," said Obi-Wan as soon as they were alone. "They're suspicious. For all we know, they may come in with blasters going."

So Siri and Obi-Wan kept their weapons ready, yet not too obviously out in case they were actually well-disposed towards them after all while Anakin sent a message to their contact to try and create a commotion.

Soon enough, there was an alarm going off throughout the Covenant facility. That's when Anakin tried to break into the computer to find the password that they'd need to make it appear that the message had actually come from the Covenant. His concentration even with the noise of both the alarm and running feet was amazing.

"We've got it," called Anakin excitedly after a minute. "As soon as we get out of here we can start writing that message to Zan Arbor."

The three of them sat down and tried to appear to be as calm as possible with their hands ready to go to their hidden lightsaber if necessary.

After another minute, with nobody coming in to get them, the Jedi were starting to think they'd been forgotten about. So they started to simply walk out with the last of the Covenant workers, thinking about how well this was working.

And sure enough, once they were outside the building, nobody was paying much attention to them in the chaos. They were able to get in their ship and out of there without any problem except having to tell someone who called that they should stay that they'd be back later. They didn't want to cause any problems with the alarms going off.

Now came the time to see if that password would actually work. First, they had to compose the message to Jenna Zan Arbor and they hadn't even decided on the details of the mission the Covenant was supposedly giving her. They talked about this for a while and decided that they needed her to deliver one of her inventions to a client of theirs. They were apologetic that she would have to leave her comfortable home, but this client, who could bring in quite a bit of money for the Covenant, would only talk to her. All this was written down and the password worked, so they knew the message had been sent to Zan Arbor. She would be reading it before long.

Comment [N12]: Delete this

What the Jedi didn't know was whether or not this message would be believed by her. Although they didn't think that she could have any proof of who had actually sent the message, they also weren't exactly sure what the writing style of the Covenant heads were. They also weren't sure whether they would actually send her on a mission off of Ronin, no matter how tempting it was. After all, Jenna Zan Arbor didn't exactly seem like the type who was used to being told what to do, and they had at least been told that she wasn't interested in leaving. So she might know very well that this was just a ruse to get her to leave the safety of Ronin.

Even when they got the reply, it still wouldn't be clear what Jenna Zan Arbor actually thought. After all, she might pretend to believe the message while hoping to trap the fraud who was pretending to be someone from the Covenant. And the three Jedi knew all of this very well and were planning for every possibility. They were going to have backup at the supposed who had permission to arrest her and would be well armed. They were also trying to think about what they would do if Zan Arbor never responded to the message, which was a possibility if she knew it was a fraud and simply wanted to keep safe on Ronin.

Jenna Zan Arbor did, however, respond to the message. She claimed that it would be just fine to meet this client of the Covenant's, but she would rather they come to Ronin if they wanted her invention so badly.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The three of them tried to think of a reason why the Covenant's mysterious client couldn't go to Ronin to meet Zan Arbor. After thinking of several ideas, they decided to explain that this was such an important client that they didn't want him to have to travel. The Covenant was concerned that they would lose this client if they insisted that he go to Ronin. This would, of course, involve losing all the money they had invested towards Zan Arbor's invention until they could find a new client. So would Zan Arbor be able to leave the planet just for a brief period and help her employers, without whom the invention wouldn't be possible?

"That should do it," said Obi-Wan after they had written it down and revised it. "I think we're ready to send that reply back to Zan Arbor."

While holding her breath, Siri sent the latest message. This time, as she'd at least responded before, they weren't as worried about her not responding again and leaving them with no idea of what she was thinking. They even took a break from being undercover as they were now some distance away from Covenant facilities. This was great as they could finally be themselves and use the computer to get caught up on some non-mission related business.

"I'm sure you're missing being Slam," she told Obi-Wan.

"About as much as you're missing being Valadon," he told her with a smirk.

But soon enough, there was a reply from Zan Arbor. They all were more nervous than they cared to admit as they checked the message. But sure enough, Zan Arbor was in fact willing to leave Ronin after all, if she could do it at this moment. She explained that this was to avoid having other spy agencies and such find out she was leaving. They replied that was fine and instantly started preparing for her arrival at the alley. Obviously things would start moving fast when Zan Arbor realized that they weren't actually interested in buying something from her. They had to have people there to arrest her who were actually prepared to deal with her, just out of sight.

Seemingly five minutes before Zan Arbor was scheduled to arrive for the sale, they were as ready as they could be for her. There were going to be blasters pointed at her from every hidden corner while one of the agents was going to pretend to be buying from her. The three Jedi were going to be in the area in case Zan Arbor tried anything while the agents were trying to arrest her. At least they'd be able to show up with their lightsabers going momentarily if it proved necessary. And somehow the Jedi thought that it might be necessary, even though they weren't exactly sure if she was Force-sensitive or not. She was well trained by the Covenant or someone like them at least, and she would be fighting and desperate not to get caught. There was a saying that a caged animal was just about the most dangerous thing in the Galaxy, and they hoped they hadn't made a mistake by turning Jenna Zan Arbor into a caged animal.

As for Zan Arbor, she arrived at the alleyway right on schedule, apparently ready to sell her invention. She seemed suspicious, though, or at least moving slowly with her eyes everywhere.

However, she at least approached the man who was posing as the buyer and started to appear to talk to him. She took the invention out of her speeder and showed it to the man who inspected it. After that he gave the motion that the team should start moving in to arrest her. They then proceeded to speak some more, but the Jedi couldn't hear what was being said from that distance. They wished that they could so they would know exactly what was going on and just how suspicious Zan Arbor was.

Of course, that was when events started happening more quickly than Siri could have thought possible. As the team came closer, Zan Arbor noticed one of them and started shooting. Siri tried to call Zan Arbor's blaster to her, but had more trouble than she thought she should. Whether the difficulty was because she was nervous or because Zan Arbor was actually doing something to manipulate the Force wasn't ever perfectly clear.

After a few seconds though, the blaster was in Siri's hands and Zan Arbor was on the run. "Don't worry about that," said the team leader to them. "They all try that, but we'll catch her before she gets back to Ronin."

"Of course," they said. "We'll stay here and help you catch her." They really weren't all that reassured however, even though they knew the team had a point from their missions and watching the holonews. Criminals who ran when they were cornered never seemed to escape for long and then they ended up getting a longer sentence for "Avoiding the Authorities." This should have been an assurance to the Jedi that their mission would soon be at an end.

The Jedi didn't think the team had dealt with anyone quite like Zan Arbor. But the team did impress them by finding Zan Arbor's ship right away from where she'd apparently landed when she arrived on the planet. The Jedi had to admit they didn't know how she was planning to get back to Ronin without it unless she stole a ship. That wasn't out of the realm of possibility, but of course there was no way to predict which ship or even what kind of ship she would consider stealing for her trip back home. She certainly did have wealthy tastes, but that meant nothing when looking for a desperate escape ship.

The team was listening for any reports of stolen ships, however, and there weren't any suspicious reports. So they continued to surround the ship in case she was ever going to return to it. The Jedi however, had a feeling that she knew very well that her ship would be surrounded and therefore she'd never come back to it. She'd be looking for an alternative way to get back to Ronin, where she would just remake her invention and try to figure out what had happened with the Covenant. Then the Jedi would be back to the beginning of their mission and were running out of ideas on how to catch her. So their only chance would be for a report to come in, and they were willing to wait for some time to allow that to happen, as Zan Arbor was wanted on several planets.

"What if the report never comes in?" asked Anakin. Neither Obi-Wan nor Siri knew what to answer, for they were as desperate as Anakin was to catch her and have this mission finished.

"It's got to," Obi-Wan finally said. "She can't have disappeared, and it's not like her to lay too low for long." Nobody seemed that convinced, however. They'd already taken longer than they'd told the Council to catch Zan Arbor, and it was looking like it might take a while longer. Still, patience was considered a virtue among the Jedi, even if it wasn't one they all perfectly had.

Finally, there was a report of a stolen ship that seemed to be similar to the one that Zan Arbor had arrived in. Although there was no proof that she had in fact stolen it, the team as well as the Jedi decided that it was better to pretend that she did. They were amazed at how quickly all the spaceports in the area were given the description of the stolen ship. It really appeared that there was finally no escape for Zan Arbor – there was no way she'd be allowed to leave the planet with a ship that had been stolen, and her own ship was surrounded. It wasn't exactly easy to take-off from almost any planet in the Galaxy without permission.

Before long, there was a report from one of the spaceports that the stolen ship had asked for permission to depart the planet. Everyone got excited and headed towards the spaceport while telling the port monitors to not allow the ship to take off under any circumstances and to at least delay the ship until they arrived. When they arrived, sure enough, it was Zan Arbor who was trying to leave the planet. She started to look resigned to being arrested, looking upset and moving slowly.

That is, she looked like that until the team actually came towards her to arrest her – which honestly wasn't much of a surprise to anyone, even without the Force. She fought back harder than the Jedi thought possible, so they had to come in to assure that she wouldn't escape again. Letting her know that they weren't actually Slam and Valadon and had been sending her messages seemed to be the least of their problems at this point. They had to get both their blasters and lightsabers out – and use them to block blaster bolts - to get her to agree to be arrested and go with the team.

And then they were finally able to breathe their sigh of relief when she was arrested and wouldn't be able to cause problems or get back to Ronin –at least for a while. It would have felt good even if it wasn't also a relief to be able to give Slam and Valadon their wardrobes back and get back to ordinary life.

Well, at least what passed for ordinary life when studying the Force and going on missions around the Galaxy was normal life. They knew that didn't exactly qualify as normal by most of the Galaxy's citizens, but they wouldn't have it any other way. Being part of the Jedi community and being intimate with the Force was worth every hardship.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: We're going to another POV chapter here to explain what happened to Simon. Don't worry, we'll be back to SiriWan soon (-:

**Two Years Later**

**Chapter 9**

It wasn't long after Simon Tachi was finally released from prison and rejoined his old life with K-Directorate than they were in an absolute panic. The tension was palpable from every sterile white hall, from the offices to the meeting rooms to the laboratories. Their greatest invention so far, Project Helix, had been stolen and they weren't even sure who had taken it out of their laboratory. Project Helix was a method that could turn a person into a physical likeness of another if the second person's DNA was available. All you had to do was get in a liquid made with a formula known only to the scientists there for some time. The scientists had been working on it for years and had come up with what materials were needed for this after painstaking trial and error.

Simon didn't want to think about what the results of those errors were. He hadn't asked anyone and K-Directorate about it, and they hadn't volunteered the information.

Although it hadn't been used successfully yet, everyone at K-Directorate was excited as this invention could potentially make it the most valuable spy agency in the Galaxy. After all, if their agents could impersonate others so easily, how could they be stopped? K-Directorate was concerned that their greatest weapon could now be used against them. And this was just before the scientists were sure their next test would be successful. Nobody seemed to think that timing was just a coincidence, and probably everyone working with K-Directorate, from the highest to the lowest, would be under at least some suspicion for some time.

"I've got some prints from the lab," Simon announced to the scientist at the meeting that had been called to decide what to do about this horrible development. "If he's got a criminal record, we've got our thief."

"And we'll have his head," Simon's supervisor said. "And Simon, I'd like you to be the one to do it."

"Of course," said Simon. "I'll get this back for you in no time." It was great to finally be back in action. It was like the past twenty years had never happened at all, except for the aging and horrible memories of course.

"Who would know about this to steal it? I thought this was a top secret project of ours," said one man who Simon had only recently met.

"It's supposed to be," spat out Simon's boss. "But you know how underworld rumors travel so fast."

Also, there was a lot more complaining about how lax security must be at K-Directorate and how the security would have to be enhanced. Following the brainstorming over how many alarms and biometric devices were necessary, Simon was more than ready to be out of there and find this thief of theirs. This would let him know exactly what sort of trouble they were in.

So as soon as the meeting was over, Simon ran the prints he'd found through the galactic criminal database. It was a simple entry into the computer. Before long, a match came up from the database.

What he found when the computer spit out the results was an absolute shock to his system.

It was the man who his daughter had spent the last two years tracking down. It was the type of man he'd despised for having no respect for other sentient beings and having factories that only existed to sell addictive substances. This was before the way he'd treated his Siri – for he was still protective of her. He could only imagine what she'd been through as a part of that world, where right was wrong and wrong was right.

It was Krayn. He'd be more than happy to kill him even if it didn't mean getting Project Helix back. And he was planning on killing him before Krayn or any of his men could put Project Helix to use. He couldn't waste any time, or he was afraid of what might happen. Who knows what someone like Krayn could do with this technology? Simon didn't even want to start thinking about it, or he knew his imagination would run away with him.

The only question was whether he'd tell Siri what his plans were ahead of time. If he did, the news about Project Helix might slip out. Also she might actually try to convince him not to kill anyone, not even Krayn. But it was so tempting to tell her as he knew she would be happy deep down that Krayn would soon be dead and at his hands. As much of a Jedi as Siri was, he didn't think she'd be quite beyond any feelings of revenge.

In any case, he told his supervisor what he'd found as soon as he could. He thought this would be seen as good news as at least they knew who had broken in and what they were in fact up against.

"I really don't care how that fiend got in here and got that liquid out," he said when he heard the news. "I just want Project Helix back. If you can bring him back here alive, we can see what information we can get out of him. If you have to kill him, that's fine too. The Galaxy won't miss him."

"I completely agree. I can't wait to get my hands on him."

"Don't make it personal. I heard about that mission of your daughter's, but that has nothing to do with his breaking into here and stealing Project Helix."

"I never mentioned that." Simon always hated it when his supervisor seemed to know his thoughts. He'd had enough of that among the Jedi.

"I know you didn't, but I don't see how you can be thinking otherwise. That was something Siri went through, and you're certainly not beyond revenge for her having to give up two years of her life."

"I can still keep this about business."

"If you say so." With that, his supervisor left and Simon was able to continue getting everything he needed packed and ready to go.

And that is how it came to be that Simon was off on his quest shortly after that. It was exactly the sort of mission he'd been trained for ever since he'd started at K-Directorate, and it never occurred to him that he might fail.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Jedi Kay-Kenobi: I'm afraid you'll find this chapter hard to read. It's not over yet though.

LVB: Thanks for your shout-out and recommendation!

Chapter 10

Siri could never remember being so upset as she stormed into her mother's apartment. She didn't understand how her mother could have failed to mention to Obi-Wan where she was when she knew Obi-Wan believed Siri had turned to the Dark Side. This secret had been kept even when Obi-Wan announced that he was engaged to someone else. This news just crushed her. After all, just about all that had gotten Siri through that hellhole of a mission was thinking that she'd come back to the Temple to find Obi-Wan waiting for her.

She also planned on telling Obi-Wan exactly what she thought of this development she had discovered on her arrival home, but that would have to come later. She could sense that her mother was home, which she rarely was, and Siri somehow felt like telling her exactly what she thought of this situation first. So she knocked on the door, not even attempting to keep her shields up when her mother answered.

"You let Obi-Wan get engaged to Rosaline." There, Siri felt like getting to the point of why she was so upset. It wasn't like her mother had no idea what was wrong or couldn't have predicted this when she found out that Obi-Wan was with someone else.

Her mother did not seem to be apologetic. "He has to make decisions about his own life."

"Yes, but that life is- or at least was - supposed to be with me, and you know it very well." Siri was getting more frustrated by the minute. "You didn't even give him all the information he needs to make his decision." That was the heart of why she was so upset – well, at least the part that was upset with her mother and the entre Jedi Council. Obi-Wan was another matter, but she'd have to deal with that another time.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi is just a boy who was never good enough for you anyway."

Siri could not believe what she was hearing. That was supposed to make her feel better? "Just because you don't seem to want me with anyone doesn't mean you can just ignore what we have! I was so sure we were going to get married when I returned from that mission."

Her mother sighed. "Honey, the Force may have other plans. But why don't you talk to him and see what you two can do if you're so insistent that he's the one?"

"Oh, I plan to." Siri was absolutely seething before this point, but somehow the anger was replaced by sadness. "It's not just him. It's that thinking I had him to return to helped me survive that mission."

"And his memory still helped you do that. And I'm so grateful it did and my girl is back safe and sound."

"I might be safe, but I'm doing horribly."

"Honey, you're going to have to find some way to live with yourself and be a Jedi, with or without Obi-Wan."

"I'm really not sure how that's going to happen right now, mom." This was just getting to be a worse and worse conversation.

It wasn't long afterwards that Siri left her mother's apartment and was trying to think of what she was going to say to Obi-Wan. She thought that he might be looking for her if she didn't find him soon, and then she wouldn't have a choice but to talk to him.

She didn't want to give him the idea that she was just fine with what he had done and make him feel better about giving up on her. How could his opinion of her be so low that he would think she would turn to the Dark Side like that? And after all they'd been through together.

She'd gotten him through Qui-Gon's death and the taking of the Chosen One as a padawan. They'd been on several missions together. And most importantly, they'd been a couple for years. And this was how the two of them were supposed to end?

Sure enough, Obi-Wan went and found her the day after she talked with her mother. He certainly did have a sympathetic look, but that didn't help any. She didn't want him to feel sorry for her.

She still wanted them to get back together, that is if Rosaline was out of the picture and the two of them could trust each other again.

"I wanted to see that you were all right," he began with the look and stillness he always had when something terrible happened.

Somehow she wasn't surprised that he would say that – but she was disappointed somehow. "No, you want to make yourself feel all right for what you did. I'm not going to sympathize with you and tell you how hard it must be to have made this mistake – to have been wrong about what happened to your own girlfriend."

"You're probably right. But I do want to see if there's anything I can do to help. I want to know how you're doing."

"If you really want to know how I'm doing – I'm doing horrible, Obi-Wan. I didn't know it was possible, but my heart feels ripped out. And you know what the worst part is? If it had been me, I would have waited. I would have found out the truth about what happened. And I certainly wouldn't have moved on like you've seemed to."

"Do you have any idea what I went through before I did?" Obi-Wan asked her.

Siri was beyond caring about that at this point. She was starting to feel like the whole relationship was a lie – that Obi-Wan wasn't the man she thought she was.

"What it comes down to is faith. And I thought you had such great faith – faith in the Force and faith in me."

This just seemed to have made Obi-Wan get cold somehow. "There are two things you need to know." He paused at Siri looked at him curiously as well as sadly. "First, it just about killed me when I thought that you'd turned to the Dark Side. Second, I don't regret moving on with my life."

He didn't regret getting engaged to someone else? What was that supposed to mean?


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Yes, that's Alias, and yes, that's what you're supposed to be thinking. Things won't stay like this though, I promise.

Chapter 11

It was a few months afterwards that Siri was summoned to a council meeting to prepare for a new mission. She could sense Obi-Wan and his padawan Anakin even before she entered the chambers.

She was going on this mission with them, then. She was going to be a Jedi and survive this. She took a deep breath and walked in, trying to be as calm as possible. She bowed to the council and tried to sense as much as possible about what was to come.

"We have called you here as a decoder has been stolen from Taly Fry." Her mother said. "It's valuable for breaking codes that the galactic spy agencies use. And as you and Master Kenobi have worked with him before, we'd like you two and Padawan Skywalker to work with him to find it before the wrong hands use it."

This was going to be – well, Siri wasn't actually sure what this was going to be. As far as she knew, Obi-Wan and Rosaline's engagement was still on. They hadn't spoken since she'd told him exactly what she thought of that development.

Still, he didn't look nearly as cold as he had the last time they had spoken. And the feelings she'd had for him were staring to come back. He really was an attractive man, and as he spoke, she was reminded of how wonderful his voice was to listen to. That is, when he wasn't telling her he didn't regret moving on with his life.

"Does Taly have any idea who has taken it?" he asked.

"He saw the thief as he was escaping. He's sure the thief would sell it to someone on the black market, but doesn't know who in the underworld has it now."

Siri would have to remember to ask her father about this. He seemed to know all the underworld rumors quite well for someone who was not technically a part of the underworld.

Actually, Siri hadn't heard from him in some time. It would be good to talk to him again, although she wouldn't admit that to any Jedi.

"And where is Taly now?" she asked. She didn't see or sense him anywhere.

"He's at his home on his new home planet of Cirrus. You three are to meet him there and learn what you can about how the decoder may be recovered."

It was hard to think of Taly as an adult, living on his own. She hadn't seen him since he was given a new identity after giving testimony about those bounty hunters. And apparently he was still the genius inventor. She was finding herself having some interest in what this decoder could do in spite of everything.

After three of them left the Council chambers, they knew they had to talk before they prepared to leave for Cirrus. Or at least two of the three did.

"We want this to be a successful mission," said Anakin before walking off.

When they were alone, Obi-Wan looked like he was trying hard to decide how to word something. "I'd like to think that we can work together at least, even with what's happened."

"I'd like to think that too. We've worked together so well before. I'm not quite ready to be friends yet, but I promise I won't get in the way of us working together." It felt so mature to say that. "And I'm glad you feel the same way." It felt good to be working together somehow, even if they weren't a couple anymore.

"It's a start," Obi-Wan said. "I'd hate to think you were completely out of my life when you didn't have to be."

"I don't think we'll ever be out of each other's lives for good. It's the Will of the Force."

Siri was relieved when Simon answered his comm. Now that he was out of prison and she was fairly sure that he was working for K-Directorate again, she wasn't sure how hard it would be to get a hold of him. But there he was, his holo right there right away.

"Siri! I'm so sorry I haven't contacted you since you came back from that mission. Congratulations! How have you been?"

"I'm about to go on a mission with my ex-boyfriend that I thought you could help with."

There was a pause. "You ex-boyfriend? Obi-Wan? He was so good for you. What happened?"

"He thought I actually turned to the dark side and he moved on with someone else."

Simon let out a long sigh. "Ouch. I'm sorry." Simon was actually the first person to say he was sorry and it wasn't his fault at all. Not that it helped any, but it was still nice to know someone cared about what had happened to her over the last few years.

"But how can I help with this mission you two are going on?" Simon seemed interested. Well, she'd never asked him to help with any missions before this. He might have thought Siri thought it beneath her to ask him to help with Jedi Order missions.

"We're trying to find Taly Fry's decoder. Any idea who might have stolen it?"

"You know, I think I heard someone from the Covenant wanted that decoder. That's all I know, though. It's not K-Directorate, I promise." So he did in fact go right back to work for K-Directorate. Siri hoped that he knew what he was doing.

"Thanks, Dad. That really helps." Combining this with talking to Taly could get them to this decoder and back home to – well, whatever was going to come next.

"Any time. You think you're going to be all right on this mission?" Simon actually sounded concerned for her, which was fairly rare.

Siri shook her head. "I don't know, but I'm going to have to be. We don't want that decoder in the wrong hands."

"I don't think either the Jedi Order or K-Directorate wants this in the Covenant's hands. I know that both use codes."

After she'd finished the conversation with her father, she had something to think about. The first was whether the Covenant was actually responsible for this and could this be used to bring them down. The second was how hard it would be to get through this mission without either having a fight with or being passionate with Obi-Wan. She wasn't sure how she was going to actually concentrate on the work at hand.

Keeping personal lives and professional lives completely separate was so hard in the world of the Jedi – especially when one was assigned a mission with a former significant other. She loved the idea of learning more about the Force for her entire life and going on missions around the Galaxy to make it a better place to ever give it up, though.

Sure enough, it was a too quiet trip to Cirrus. Nobody seemed exactly sure how to break the ice, although everyone was at least somewhat interested in trying. So everyone ended up being polite, but there wasn't the fun there was on missions before this point. Siri at least missed this, and she was starting to think that Obi-Wan did too.

He was still attracted to her, she was sure of it. So why wouldn't he break off his engagement? She was starting to think she'd get back together with him if he did, although they'd have to work to regain trust and relearn who the other was again after being apart for so long. Besides, Siri was sure she'd changed over that mission. It was just about impossible to be undercover for so long and not be changed somehow.

"You know, I talked to my dad. He's working for K-Directorate again and he heard a rumor," she told him.

"What is it?" he asked, seeming both interested and relieved that she was actually speaking to him.

"The Covenant wanted the code breaker. Doesn't this sound familiar?"

"Ah yes, dealing with the Covenant again." He sighed. "This is the one time I'm glad that your father has these connections."

"He likes you, you know."

Obi-Wan seemed surprised. "Really?"

"Yep. He said you were good for me when I talked to him on the comm."

"I'm afraid I haven't been good for you lately, but I'm glad we can talk and work together again."

"This does feel almost normal, doesn't it?" Siri found herself starting to relax for the first time in a long while.

"Yes, I suppose that it does." Obi-Wan actually had a smile on his face. Siri thought it might just about be the first one she'd seen since her return from bringing down the Krayn organization.

They then started talking about how they'd even find anyone in the Covenant if it turned out that they did in fact have the codebreaker. Before they knew it, they had landed on Cirrus and were talking with Taly, who in many ways hadn't changed much in the years since they'd last seem him. He seemed embarrassed to need Jedi help again, but clearly was desperate to get the codebreaker back.

"It's my proudest invention," he explained at one point. "But I never intended the wrong person to get their hands on it."

"Do you have any holopictures of anyone in the Covenant?" he asked after they told him about the rumor. "I only saw him at a distance, but I'm sure that I'd recognize him."

"Of course. They're in the Coruscant criminal database," said Obi-Wan.

After they'd shown Taly the holopictures of the known members of the Covenant in the database, he got excited. "That's him!"

"You're absolutely sure?"

"Yes, I'd recognize that face anywhere." Taly certainly seemed to be convinced about this. Hopefully he was right and this wasn't some sort of mistaken identity case.

"That's the first step," said Anakin. "Now the question is, how are we going to get the codebreaker back from him? We don't even know if he still has it or where to find him, even if he does."

They thought for a minute, and then Siri had an idea. "We pretend to want to buy the codebreaker from him. Then he'll come to us, and we'll have him and the codebreaker."

"That's true. We can talk to the Covenant undercover." Obi-Wan was clearly thinking quickly.

"Siri, can your dad help us seem to be K-Directorate members? We have to look like someone who would want to buy this codebreaker without reporting them to the authorities."

Siri nodded. "I can ask at least." It would be something – Jedi pretending to be K-Directorate with their help after K-Directorate had spied on them – but it just might actually work. At least it was the best idea they had at this point. Whether it would work would, of course, depend on how gullible the Covenant actually was when they were quite possible desperate to sell something.

The first thing that Siri noticed when she contacted Simon was that she didn't recognize the background. It wasn't his home or the offices of K-Directorate. "Where are you, Dad?" she asked.

"K-Directorate sent me on a mission. I'll tell you all about it when I get back," he said. Siri was curious about what kind of mission it was, but Simon wouldn't really say.

But soon they got to talking about the reason that Siri had contacted him. And sure enough, Simon was eager to help some more when he heard what was going on. "Why don't you contact the Covenant using my holoaccount?" he asked. "You can't come here, but if they respond, you can meet the Covenant agent at any place all of you agree on."

"Thanks, Dad." This mission was getting to be almost enjoyable. Who would have thought that she and Obi-Wan would be able to work together again? Who would have thought she and her father would be able to work together? "What's your password?"

Simon gave it to her and although they could have stopped talking then, they didn't. Siri hadn't realized how much she could learn from him – and how much she'd missed not having a dad around while she was growing up. But eventually they had to end the contact.

Siri told Obi-Wan and Anakin that she'd been given permission to use Simon's holoaccount and had the password, which was just the sort of help they'd been looking for. The four of them started talking animatedly about who in the Covenant they were going to pretend to be and how they would word the request for the Codebreaker to them. Before long, they had sent the message and were just waiting for a response. The Jedi – Taly was not included as obviously the thief knew who he was – started going over their story and Siri told them all she knew about K-Directorate. Unfortunately, that wasn't much as she'd never talked to her father a lot about his work, probably because she didn't even like to think about her father there most of the time.

And the next day they got a response. Someone at the Covenant was in fact interested in selling the codebreaker and didn't seem too curious about how K-Directorate knew that they had it. What they were interested in was negotiating about the price, but neither Taly nor the Jedi had much of an idea what it would sell for on the black market. So they messaged back and said they would negotiate the price in person. They also suggested a place to meet, in an alleyway off-planet the three knew from a previous mission that they could set up first.

The Force must have been with them as the Covenant seemed agreeable to meeting in person. They had a time and place set up even sooner than they'd expected.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

A/N: While I hate to say how this story ends at this point, I can assure all my readers that Siri will be very much alive and very much with Obi-Wan at the end. I hated her death too [gee, let's kill Siri off right after she and Obi-Wan talk about their feelings for the first time in 20 years]. As for Padme, she'll be mentioned, but unfortunately I just couldn't fit her in to this story much.

Back to Simon's mission [But don't worry, Siri, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Taly will be back in chapter 13]

Simon arrived at Krayn's office and factory not knowing what to expect except for it supposedly being empty. He had blasters in both hands although he knew that the place had finally been shut down by the authorities. What he needed was a forwarding address, or at least a plan of where to find him. There wasn't anything, however, except a computer that might have an address on one of the encrypted files. He took it, thinking he'd have one of K-Directorate's droids check it later.

He was starting to come up with a plan involving the Covenant, as he thought they just might be the type to be working with someone like Krayn. He'd have to pretend to be a member and contact Krayn, claiming he wanted to meet him somewhere. Luckily he knew enough about them from his years in the Covenant and K-Directorate to be able to convincingly pretend to be one.

All Simon needed was another comm and an explanation of why the Covenant wanted to talk to him. He decided that they were interested in more political connections and didn't want to simply bribe. And this was where that computer could come in handy – it might mention which political figures he'd been bribing to stay quiet about his highly illegal factory. Simon would have asked Siri, but didn't want to have to explain the whole mission to her. She'd only either worry about him or be right down to find Simon and Krayn herself. That is, if the Jedi Council didn't keep her busy. They usually did.

After a more thorough search and not finding anything else interesting, Simon went back to his ship with the computer. His droid was able to find a list of connections. Now the next step was to convince the Covenant to buy this list from him in return for the knowledge of where Krayn and Project Helix were.

As it turned out, they needed a lot of convincing. The Covenant wasn't particularly interested in working with the Covenant, although Simon knew that they certainly would be interested in a list of politicians. Using that was the only way he would get through with them and make a deal that both of them would like. He had to offer to go on a mission for them and pay them more credits than what he thought reasonable to get them to take the list and tell them where Krayn was. Simon was hoping his boss at K-Directorate wouldn't be too angry he'd had to offer to work for the enemy to get this deal. He promised himself this would be a onetime event and he was especially desperate.

When he reached the Covenant offices, he felt like a prisoner from the moment they got there. Not only did he have to show ID, there were metal detectors and he knew he wouldn't be let out of sight for a moment. He didn't know how Siri and Obi-Wan had been left alone with a computer the last time they were there.

Still, it was worth it when the head of the Covenant came in and Simon realized that he was happy with this deal. He didn't seem to mind giving up an underworlder's location if he was well compensated for it. And Simon could tell that he was excited about getting this list, although he tried not to show him that. So they were willing to work together after all, even though they could be rivals much of the time. After all, those with a common enemy can often work together even if they don't have much in common or don't like each other very much.

"I'm glad that the Covenant and K-Directorate can work together occasionally if it can get us both what we want," he was saying. "And as we both officially want underworlders to be put away, I can tell you that Krayn is on Ronin so none of the planets that are hungry for his blood can get to him."

Ronin. At least he wouldn't have to worry about getting into trouble for being part of K-Directorate there. It wasn't like beings there worried too much about spies as nobody ever got extradited off of the planet.

"So if I went there, I'd be able to just ask around and find him easily?" Simon asked.

"Most likely. And you know what; I don't even feel guilty about betraying him. He's not valuable to me anymore now that his factory's been shut down and he's gone into hiding."

It wasn't too much longer after that Simon left the computer and the entirely too much money with him, but still left excited. After all, he at least knew what planet Krayn was on – and hopefully Project Helix, which he hadn't mentioned to the Covenant of course, was with him. He hoped that the Covenant wouldn't question too carefully why exactly Simon and K-Directorate were looking for Krayn. He didn't need yet another person or organization looking for what was quite possibly K-Directorate's greatest invention.

But at least they hadn't asked why Simon was so desperate in the first conversation. This could mean that they really weren't interested, or it could mean that they were planning to ask later, after Simon had found Krayn. And Simon wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to tell them. It wasn't like the truth was an option.

Well, there was no use worrying about that now. And after contacting K-Directorate and letting them know about the deal he had made without consulting them, he knew that he had even more to worry about in any case.

"I know we're desperate to get Project Helix back, but you've given the Covenant entirely too much," said his boss. "Couldn't you have negotiated some more?"

"I tried," said Simon, who was getting a little frustrated at this point. "I know it's a lot, but I also know we want to get Krayn and we want to get Project Helix back."

"You're right," said his boss. "I don't like the idea of you working for the Covenant though if it's against K-Directorate interests – and for all we know it might be – I want you to refuse. You've already given them money and the computer for the information."

"But we don't know what they'll do if I refuse."

"That's why we need to tread carefully with these people. Believe me, if they initiated this they'd be doing the same thing."

That didn't help very much. Honestly, sometimes Simon wondered just how much respect for their agents K-Directorate had.

"Fine. I'll contact you when I get to Ronin."

The trip to Ronin was luckily uneventful. There wasn't even a lot of turbulence.

When he got there, however, things began to get harder. Nobody would deny that Krayn was in fact on the planet. Nobody would say exactly where he was though. He went to as many places and talked to as many people as possible, but people became frightened whenever the subject came up.

That is, until someone tipped him off that Krayn was attempting to start yet another factory, and the people who were in charge of Ronin were looking the other way, as they did just about everything else. This got Simon excited, for something as large as a factory would be hard to hide for long. He'd just have to find out where the building was and then break in.

All right, maybe that wouldn't be as easy as it sounded. That wasn't going to make him just give up.

He had to travel quite a bit more on the planet until he saw a suspicious building. It was large, run-down, and looked to be guarded quite well. There were guard droids at every entrance. However, there was nobody coming in or out of the place. As someone who'd learned to look for the signs of trafficking, this sent alarm bells going on in Simon's mind. Something – maybe it was the Force that he'd learned so much about being married to a Jedi for years – told him that this was it.

He'd just have to get past the guard droids without anyone inside getting suspicious that something was wrong until too late. And there could very well be an alarm programmed to go off if a droid was damaged. But as there was no way he could get past the entrance without the droids seeing him, so he decided that he had to chance it.

He started shooting at the droids. It wasn't too hard to do as long as he did it quickly, and as he had no tracer in him, he didn't have to worry about an explosion. There wasn't even an alarm, so Simon was able to walk right into the building and take a look at was just inside the entrance.

There wasn't immediately all that much to see. There were dark narrow hallways that someone or some droid could be coming down any second, so Simon kept his blaster at the ready. He kept going until reached a balcony that led over a deep chasm.

Looking underneath, it was dark enough that he couldn't see much of what was going on. Still, Simon knew that was what was necessary to process glitterstim spice. And this was where an overseer might be.

Sure enough, he heard loud footsteps coming down the corridor. Simon took a deep breath and pointed his blaster towards the sound. Now he might actually get somewhere.

It was in fact Krayn himself. "Who are you, and what are you doing in my factory," he asked, his own blaster at the ready.

"I'm here to get Project Helix back," answered Simon. "Took long enough to find you."

Krayn suddenly seemed to recognize him. "You're the K-Directorate operative whose daughter was the Jedi sent to spy on me. I've been waiting for you, Simon Tachi."

That was when the fighting began.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

After they had talked for a while about how they were going to handle this sale without coming up with any firm solutions, they decided to take a break. Siri was surprised that Taly went to talk to her.

"I hope I'm not causing any problems. I just, well, happened to notice that things seem tenser than last time." He sounded like he actually wanted to help, and Siri wished there was something he could do to ease her heartbreak.

Siri decided to tell him the truth. "That would be because Obi-Wan and I aren't together anymore. He's actually with someone else now. Things have been tense since I came back from an undercover mission to discover this." That was already much more than she'd planned on telling Taly since after all they only had only a professional relationship, but the words came out in any case.

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Taly, who sounded like he meant it. "But couldn't he break up with her now that you're back?"

"That," said Siri, "Is what I would like to know." In fact, the thought had run through her head about a thousand times since she first heard about Rosaline.

"I see", said Taly. "He hasn't explained that to you. But I can tell that you're still hurting over it."

"Yes," said Siri, glad she could admit this to someone who wasn't a Jedi and wasn't her father. "I suppose I still am." She decided she should change the subject then. "But I'm glad if we can help you get the decoder back. After all, it was the three of us years ago."

"So it was," Taly said. "I still remember camping with you and being so frightened that we'd be caught by bounty hunters."

"I remember having to fake a crash," said Siri. "That was the wildest landing I've ever been through."

"Me too," said Taly, who was starting to laugh.

Siri thought of something related to the sale at that point. "Are you sure you would like to be part of the backup team? I know you want to get your decoder back, but things could get dangerous."

"I've got to play my part in defeating the Covenant," said Taly. "And after all, it's my decoder. So yes, I'm sure I'm going to be part of the backup team."

And that was decided. The main question left was whether Siri, Obi-Wan and Anakin could fool the Covenant. They would, of course, try their best. But for all they knew someone from the Covenant could recognize them from the time they were at the compound to get the password to try and get Zan Arbor off Ronin. They would be wearing different clothes of course and that was only a brief visit, but there was that possibility of being recognized. If that happened, there would be no choice but to have yet another shootout. Siri was of course perfectly capable of deflecting blaster bolts and would have her lightsaber hidden on her, but she would rather not have to use it. The smoother this "sale" could go, the better.

Siri remembered that they had nothing to pay for the decoder and decided to ask Obi-Wan about it. "What are we going to do about the credits we've agreed to pay them?"

"I've taken care of that," Obi-Wan answered. "The Council has put money into our bank account. We show them via our comm that we actually have the credits. Then, when they bring the decoder out, we arrest them and the money goes back in the Order account."

Siri had to admit that was the plan that made the most sense at this point. "And then we're back to the Temple after we drop off Taly?"

"That's right," Obi-Wan grinned. "Hopefully it'll be that easy."

They would get their chance soon to find out if everything would in fact go that easily. Somehow Siri had a feeling that it wouldn't. It was probably because none of their missions went as smoothly as possible, even if they did manage to complete them somehow. Siri took a deep breath to remember that likely meant that this mission would be completed somehow. It was just a matter of how trusting and dangerous these people from the Covenant turned out to be.

Anakin came up to her after she'd taken this breath. "We've got another message from the Covenant," he said. Siri looked up to see Obi-Wan looking intently into his comm. She walked over to find out exactly what this message said.

Obi-Wan looked up from his comm. "They now want proof that we have the credits before they'll agree to meet with us," he told her.

"Do we have the bank account set up yet?" asked Siri. She hoped they had or they could lose this chance to recover the decoder. They might not get such a good chance again for a long time.

"No, the Council hasn't had a chance to yet."

This was somehow a bit of a surprise. "Do they know when they're going to be able to have it working?"

"Hopefully by tomorrow. We'll just have to stall the Covenant until then." Obi-Wan didn't seem too concerned, so the Council must have been encouraging. This was a good thing as the meeting with the Covenant was to be in just two days.

"So I suppose we can just pretend that we didn't receive the message until then."

"That's right," said Obi-Wan, who was starting to smile. "We can just let them sweat it out."

And sure enough, the next day the new bank account was set up. They sent the information about the account to the Covenant with a message saying that they understood that the Covenant wanted assurances that they had the credits.

The Covenant sent a message back almost immediately saying that the account certainly looked legit and they would happily meet in the alleyway the next day. Siri had the uncharacteristically pessimistic thought that the Covenant could still be suspicious and knew that she couldn't be too careful the next day.

When the next day came, the three Jedi went to the Alleyway before the scheduled time so that they could prepare. They weren't sure what to expect, so they had their weapons out as well as their comms with the bank account information as well as ability to contact the backup team. The team, including Taly was just out of sight and prepared to come and arrest the Covenant members as soon as the decoder was in sight.

The Covenant members didn't appear until after the appointed time. The Jedi supposed that their late arrival was because the Covenant wanted them to be nervous that they wouldn't arrive at all. However, at least they appeared to be interested in doing business.

"The decoder's right here," Taly's thief pointed to his pack. "We just need the credits transferred into out account and it's yours."

"How do we know you won't just take off with our money then?" asked Obi-Wan. If they transferred the money, it would be difficult to get the credits back to the Council.

"All right, I'll show you the decoder." Never taking his eyes off the Jedi, he took off his pack and opened it. He took something out and showed it to the Jedi. It certainly was Taly's decoder.

"We're not just going to take it from you, I promise," said Siri. She then took her decoder out and pretended to go to transfer the money while letting the backup team know that the Covenant group certainly did have the decoder on them.

"I'd better see that," said the thief's partner. "I need to know that you're actually transferring the money." Siri quickly pushed a button to get the comm back on bank mode and then gave the comm to him. He looked at it and then gave it back to her, apparently satisfied.

"It's just taking a minute," said Siri. She started finishing the message to the backup team and this time she was able to send it. They just had to somehow detain the Covenant people a minute more.

"Check your account," said Siri. "When you see that the money's there we expect the decoder."

As the Covenant members started to check their account using their comms, Siri thought that the backup team couldn't come fast enough. There was no telling what they would do when they saw that the money was deposited in the accounts. Siri didn't want to face the Council and Taly if they escaped with the decoder. At least the Covenant operatives were kept here at this point by the blasters pointed at them. They did at least seem to believe that they would be used if they left without the decoder.

Only a matter of seconds later, two events happened at once that made the alleyway much more action-filled. The first was that the thief yelled out "Hey! There's no money in here." The second was that the backup team showed up determined to arrest them.

Although the Covenant operatives fought back, they were outnumbered and before long, they were being led away. Siri was the one to return the decoder, which had been recovered from the thief, to an overjoyed Taly.

"I can't thank you enough for all your help," he said. "I don't know how my inventions keep getting me into this trouble."

"It's because there are uses that aren't so good for your inventions," said Siri. "But it's that way with all inventors."

"I suppose," said Taly. "So I should be on my way now." And they said their goodbyes to Taly and prepared to go back to the Temple.

Siri was thinking it would be a good thing if she didn't see Obi-Wan again for a long time. It was just too painful to have to see him knowing that he wasn't hers anymore, and it seemed to be wishful thinking that would ever change.

A/N: Or seems like wishful thinking until next chapter (-:


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

When Siri saw Obi-Wan for the first time since the recovery of Taly's decoder, she knew that something important had happened. There was entirely too much anticipation in the air for two people who were supposedly just friends and co-workers. And he seemed to be expecting something, at least an answer, from her.

"I did it," said Obi-Wan. "I broke up with Rosaline. Honestly, we haven't been happy in a long time."

Siri tried not to appear too excited. "How are you doing?" she suspected, looking at and sensing Obi-Wan, that he might be doing much better than Rosaline was at this moment.

"It was hard, but I know I did the right thing," he continued. "I couldn't go through with the wedding – it wouldn't be fair to either of us - not with how I feel about you. And I don't even know if you'll take me back after all that's happened."

"I haven't dismissed the idea." Siri couldn't help but smile. "But let's take it slowly. You just got out of a relationship and we haven't been a couple in a long time. I'm sure that we've both changed, so we have to in a way get to know each other again."

"Perfect," Obi-Wan smiled. "I'm looking forward to doing that. I was just worried you'd have trouble forgiving me after your talk of losing faith and how horribly you were doing."

"I never gave up faith in you," Siri answered. Although she tried not to show it, this was just about the best news she's gotten in her life. She felt like shouting it from some balcony of the Temple, but she just kept showing an uncharacteristically easy smile at the Jedi who were walking by.

"And I'll never lose faith in you again," promised Obi-Wan. And somehow, she believed him and felt that he wouldn't let anything or anyone tear them apart ever again. This was just as true as she knew he would never try to leave the Jedi Order ever again. And with as dedicated a Jedi as he was, that meant a lot.

For all their talk of "taking it slowly", it wasn't long after that before they found themselves waking up together for the first time since she'd left on the mission to bring down the Krayn organization. The first time this happened after it had been a long time was always the best somehow. The memory of the night before made her smile and she did not want to get up and out of bed anytime soon. It was like absolutely no time had passed since they'd been together and neither of them had ever been with anyone else, just like in the beginning of their relationship.

Siri's waking up and turning over in bed woke up Obi-Wan and she could tell that he felt the same way from the sleepiness and happiness she sensed. It was really too bad their responsibilities could never take a vacation. But that was what happened when there was an expectation to follow the Force and be a servant of the Republic. That was true every single day of every year, and none of the Jedi would ultimately have it any other way.

"Good morning," Siri told him. "Except that I don't want to get out of bed today." It was just entirely too comfortable.

"So? Don't. You deserve to sleep in every once in a while." If only Jedi ever got to forget they were supposed to be servants of the Galaxy every once in a while, Siri would have been ever so grateful. But that wasn't the way the Order worked, as she'd learned long before. It was actually one of the very first lessons drilled into the Younglings, and both of them had learned their lessons well.

"I have a Council meeting in an hour." She didn't feel like going in, but she wouldn't even think about not going. Being a Jedi was her passion, as demanding as it was. Besides, she supposed she should start showing respect for the Council's time.

"Oh yes, you do have to get up for that. I just hope you're not going off planet any time soon."

"Me too. I wouldn't count on it though. And aren't you supposed to be training Anakin?"

"I actually am later today." Obi-Wan sighed. "He'll be happy to hear this news. I know he likes you better than Rosaline. And he'll never be able to thank you enough for your part in bringing down the Krayn organization."

With that, but still fairly certain they were glowing, the two of them forced themselves out of bed and got ready for the day. They promised each other that they'd see each other that evening.

Finally, something in Siri's life was going right. Although she recently had a successful mission and gotten closer to her father than she'd thought possible, that hadn't made her feel nearly this good. She went to her Council meeting practically walking on air, which was so unusual, particularly in recent days.

Naturally, her good fortune only lasted for that day before she had to deal with yet another disaster. This one just didn't turn out to have anything to do with Obi-Wan Kenobi, but something separate from her romantic life entirely.

After her council meeting about yet another mission she probably hadn't paid nearly enough attention to, she was running errands around Coruscant when she had a feeling that she was being followed. Normally, the traffic was heavy enough that somebody who wasn't Force-sensitive wouldn't be able to tell for sure if they were being followed. But Siri was sure that there was an intense somebody following her, so she made a few quick turns to see what would happen.

Sure enough, there was still the same speeder following her. And what made it all the more confusing was that she was fairly certain that she'd never seen that speeder before in her life and she certainly didn't recognize the driver. It was fairly typical looking for this level of Coruscant, but still, there it was, no matter how many turns she made. She supposed that she might as well stop her speeder, get her lightsaber out, and see what happened.

Sure enough, the speeder stopped and a man she'd never seen got out. He was tough looking and well-armed, with a blaster in both arms.

"You're Siri Tachi, yes?" he asked. There was something in his tone that chilled Siri's heart, which had so recently been warm. Yes, something was definitely very wrong – and she had a feeling she was about to discover exactly what it was.

Trying not to panic, Siri nodded.

A moment later, the bullets started. Siri started blocking the bullets with her lightsaber and calling to the man, trying desperately to figure out what was going on.

"What are you doing this for?"

"It's not personal," he said, surprisingly calmly. "It's just that I've been offered quite a bit of money for you dead. So consider it business."

Somehow she wasn't surprised. With all the criminals she'd helped to put behind bars, of course one of them would hire a hitman to come after her. There were two main questions in her mind. The first was who was it that hired this assassin? The second was, would she be able to run her lightsaber though him? She'd technically never killed anyone before.

The fight continued for some time, with her attacking and blocking bullets, but eventually she found that she was capable of cutting her lightsaber through someone, at least to save her own life. As he lay on the ground, she rushed over to him.

She had to know who hired this man. She sensed that this was important to discover. For whoever it was would be dead too, so she didn't have to be concerned about some other hitman finding her later. And she'd be sure to rid the Galaxy of some sort of scum.

"Who hired you to kill me?" she called.

She hadn't expected the response. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes, of course I'm sure. I want them dead too." She had to know just who she was dealing with.

The assassin's breathing became labored. "Simon Tachi." he said.

"What?"she asked, starting to panic and not sure if you could possibly have heard that right. It was just about the last name she could have been expecting to hear.

"It's true." There was a gasp. "Simon Tachi hired me to kill you." At that point, his eyes closed and Siri could no longer sense anything from him.

How was this possible? Siri could sense that the assassin had been telling the truth, and it explained his reluctance to tell her who hired him. But her father had never harmed her or even come close to it, ever. And what could he hope to gain? It wasn't like she was even trying to bring down K-Directorate or interfere with anything having to do with his life.

She'd have to talk with her mother about this later. Maybe she would have an answer to this puzzle. Then again, it wasn't like her mother necessarily had a good idea of what her ex-husband was capable of. She might assume the worst after the betrayal of herself and the entire Jedi Order.

But for now, she just felt like getting in her speeder and bursting into tears, as un-Jedi like as that sounded.

How could her father possibly have hired someone to kill her? And just as she thought they were starting to get closer after so many years? But if it wasn't him but somebody else, what made the assassin so sure that it was him? She'd stop at nothing to get to the bottom of this.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Jedi Kay-Kenobi: Glad you liked the last chapter and thank you so much for continuing to review.

Chapter 15

By the time that Siri returned to the Temple and found her mother, what had happened earlier was actually beginning to sink in. She was feeling worse than she had in the speeder and was sure that everyone in the Temple could sense it. She was almost beyond caring what the rest of the Jedi thought – they didn't know that her father, or someone pretending to be her father, had hired someone to try and kill her. This was quite possibly just about the biggest shock she'd ever had in her life, so she was beyond another repetition of "emotion is forbidden."

A horrible thought occurred to her. What if whoever he was tried to hire another assassin when he found out that she was still alive? Would she have to watch her back for the rest of her life? She didn't think that she could live like that for long. She'd have to get to the bottom of this for her sanity at least.

"You," Siri stopped, realizing how horrible her mother could feel on knowing that her ex-husband had tried to kill their daughter, "have no idea what happened when I was out running errands today." She felt lucky that she could get even that much out calmly. She was somehow able to appear much calmer on the outside than she felt. She didn't see at that moment how she was going to actually feel calm any time soon.

Her mother looked concerned. After all, it certainly wasn't like her daughter to look nearly this upset or frightened. "I can sense you're upset. What happened to you?"

"Someone followed my speeder and when I got out to see what was going on, he tried to kill me. I blocked several of his bullets with my lightsaber. He was some sort of hit man or something." There, she got just about the worst part out.

"Who would possibly hire someone to kill you?" Siri could sense that her mother wasn't nearly as calm as she was trying to be. "I'm so grateful you're all right after that."

Siri paused. "He said that Dad hired him to kill me." She braced herself for what she was suddenly sure would be her mother's reaction.

Adi Gallia's concern suddenly turned to anger. "Why would your father possibly do that? Could the assassin be sure if it was him or not who hired him?"

"I have no idea," Siri answered. "I just know that he believed what he told me."

"I can't believe I'm saying this," her mother said "but I'm going to contact K-Directorate and see if I can get to the bottom of this. Honestly, I had no idea he might ever try anything like this, and I want to make sure it wasn't really one of that scum who works there pretending to be him somehow."

That thought, for some reason, hadn't occurred to Siri. But it did seem like a more likely explanation for what had happened, especially as spies weren't necessarily known for treating targets well. Could somebody there have reason to want her dead, even if they hadn't mentioned anything to her father so he wouldn't be able to warn her? The idea seemed worth looking into, even though Siri wasn't convinced that it was correct.

"Why don't I call them?" asked Siri. "I should be able to find someone to tell me where he is at least. Did you know he helped me with my last mission?" That seemed so long ago at this point.

"You really asked for your father's and K-Directorate's help with a Jedi Order mission?"

Siri nodded, hoping that her mother would understand. "Ironic, isn't it? But yes, they'd - or at least Dad had – heard a rumor that the Covenant had stolen Taly's decoder. We wouldn't have found it without him."

"That's good," answered her mother. "But I don't like to think of you too mixed up with K-Directorate. I promise you, nothing good is going to come of it. And quite possibly, something terrible already has."

"I know they spied on us," Siri answered. "But I haven't talked to anyone there but Dad."

"So how do you know that they'll talk to you now?" Her mother was always so pessimistic, especially when it came to K-Directorate. Well, Siri could understand why after all that had happened to her.

"I don't," admitted Siri. "But I have to try. I have to figure out who wants me dead or I'm always going to be looking over my shoulder."

"And I'll help you."

After Siri left her mother, she called K-Directorate right away. Simon's boss sounded surprised to hear from her, and she could tell he was holding something back. Although she wasn't close enough to sense him, there was something in his voice and the way he moved, even if the Force wasn't calling out to her that he didn't want to talk to her and especially didn't want to give her any more information than necessary. She explained what had happened and asked him if there was any way he could think of to help her solve this. He didn't seem hopeful that he could help.

"I haven't heard from your father since he left on his last mission," he said. "And I certainly never hired a hit man to kill you, if that's what you're asking."

"What was my father's last mission?" Siri asked.

"He was going to kill Krayn," he replied. "Someone I hear you know very well."

"Yes," Sir replied, tight-lipped. "Why did you send my father after him at this point?"

"That's confidential," he answered. "I don't have to explain my missions to anyone outside K-Directorate."

"Even if it could help get to the bottom of this?" Siri was getting frustrated, even though she knew that getting answers from this man was going to be difficult.

"I've told you all I can. I'll try and have your father contact you though. Maybe he can help figure out who tried to hire someone to kill you."

"That's a good idea. Have him contact me as soon as possible. At least I should be able to help him with this mission."

Once she had broken contact, she realized that she was more confused than ever. It really appeared, as far as she could tell, that K-Directorate hadn't hired this hit man after all. And she just couldn't believe that her father would do anything like this for personal reasons. It was also starting to worry her that even K-Directorate didn't seem to have heard from him in some time. Maybe something had happened on this mission and her father had been the victim of identity theft. After all, did this hit man know what her father looked like before he hired him? And she certainly knew that ID's could be faked – she'd used them herself, after all.

But to know that for sure, she'd have to find him and ask if anything that could lead to identity theft had in fact happened. If not, she still thought that he might have an idea of who could pretend to be him convincingly enough the hit man was sure it was him.

Siri commed her father, but there was no answer. Somehow she wasn't surprised, even though she'd had no trouble at all reaching him lately. Even if he really had no idea that someone had tried to kill her – which she hated to admit she wasn't completely sure about – he probably didn't want to admit his mission to her. It would be too close to home, which was probably why he ever told her about it in the first place.

Now that the sting of what the hit man had told her was somehow starting to lessen, Siri noticed that she was still hurt that Simon hadn't said anything about being ordered to kill Krayn. She would have wanted to know that. She could have helped him with that –well, assuming that she had any time to spare when the Council was done with her. And her father knew that.

But why had the man from K-Directorate been so cautious about telling her why they gave this order? She had a feeling that there was something important that he knew – an important missing piece of this puzzle that he hadn't mentioned for whatever reason. The Force was telling her so loudly and clearly that she was missing an important piece of information that she had to know to solve this.

Something that K-Directorate didn't want anyone else in the Galaxy to know for whatever reason.

Something that would explain how someone else could convincingly pretend to be one of their agents.

Something that would explain who this someone else would be who would hire a hit man to kill her – it had to be someone she'd met on one of her missions. One of those criminals was out there somewhere in the Galaxy pretending to be a criminal catcher.

She'd have to be able to request a special mission from the Council if she could figure out how to put this that way to them. There just was no proof of it yet, and she wasn't sure how she was supposed to be able to get proof.

And she was going to have to figure this out if the truth didn't come to her soon. Maybe if she could get the Council's permission to go after Krayn again. Repeating the same mission that her father was on just might lead to answers. At least that was the best idea she had at the moment, and she wasn't sure what else she could try unless she could get a hold of her father or another hit man showed up.

What she didn't know was that her mother had also tried to reach her father – for she'd promised him once that if his work with K-Directorate affected any Jedi ever again, especially their daughter, she'd kill him.

After Siri told Obi-Wan what had happened, he was just as shocked as she was. "I know your father betrayed us, but he's never hurt you, has he?"

"No, never, and that's why I think there's more to this story. We have to find him. K-Directorate sent him to find Krayn so that's who we're going to find." Siri was determined to finish that job in any case.

Obi-Wan didn't seem convinced. "Do you have any idea where he went after his factory was raided?"

"No, but that's why I'm talking to Coruscant Law Enforcement. Maybe they have an idea where Krayn is or at least where this hit man is based."

"It's worth a try. But what do we do when we find Krayn but your dad's not there?"

Siri hadn't actually thought that far ahead. "We'll kill Krayn and see what we can find. I don't know. We just have to find out who actually hired that assassin."

Siri contacted Coruscant Law Enforcement, who was taking care of the report of what happened with a man dead on Coruscant in any case, and they told her that Krayn was known to be on Ronin. That was why they weren't making an effort to find him – there was no extradition to other planets from there.

"But if he ever leaves," Siri was told, "we're on him." But of course Krayn would know that and therefore he'd never leave Ronin again. Well, at least that way Siri knew which planet he'd be on. And it was even a planet she'd spent some time on and knew how things worked.

Before long, the two of them were off to Ronin for the first time since he'd been posing as Slam and she'd been posing as Valadon. She knew that most of the beings there wouldn't be happy to see Jedi, but she was beyond caring at this point. And at least with both her lightsaber and a blaster she was using for this mission being out at all times, none of them were likely to bother them unless she bothered them.

Although there was no sign of Krayn right away, she couldn't see how he would have left without just about the entire Galaxy knowing, so she didn't give up. She just couldn't, not after all this work. It was just that nobody wanted to betray Krayn, so she had to somehow find another way to find him.

"It's too bad that we can't talk to the head of this planet," said Obi-Wan after one discouraging day. "But he's probably being bribed by Krayn like he's being bribed by all the criminals here."

"Probably," she said. "Maybe we should offer our own bribe to somebody here who knows where Krayn is." Not that they had a lot of credits to offer, but maybe they could find someone desperate enough to take it who knew something.

"Not a bad idea, but we have to figure of who to bribe. I'm sure Teda isn't interested in our money. He just wants Krayn's money and the knowledge that he's safe from him and long as he lets him stay on Ronin."

"He sure seems to be a corrupt politician." Siri sighed. "But why don't we try and talk to one of the people we keep running into again. Maybe they've seen my father at least." She had to talk to him and find out what had happened. Even if he hadn't hired the hit man, she was becoming increasingly sure he'd know something that would lead her to who had.

"It's strange we haven't seen him if K-Directorate really sent him on that mission," said Obi-Wan. "He must know that Krayn's here by now, but nobody's mentioned him looking for him."

"He didn't even tell me he was looking for him," Siri said. "And he was on a mission the last we talked." She realized just how disappointed she was that he hadn't trusted her with that information.

She put that aside, however, and she and Obi-Wan figured out how much money they had to pay someone with who could give them any helpful information. Then they went out trying to talk to enough people to subtly decide who knew something.

It took a while, but they found someone looking at their credits desperately who seemed to want to be helpful.

"Krayn's started a new factory," he said. "Nobody goes in or out except for the spice dealers, but I can tell you where it is."

Although the two of them were always cautious with informants, it wasn't like they had plenty of leads at the moment. So Siri asked, trying not to sound too suspicious, "Where is it?"

"On the other side of Ronin. You can't miss it. It's a large, boarded up building in the middle of nowhere."

After getting some more exact information, the two of them thanked him, gave him the money, and left.

"Think that he's telling the truth?" Siri asked.

"We have to follow up on this but be cautious," Obi-Wan answered. "And he was telling the truth as far as I can tell."

So the next day, they went to the other side of Ronin and started looking for Krayn's new factory building. It took them some time, but they finally found it – or at least Siri assumed they had found it. There was the familiar feel about it somehow, and it perfectly matched the description of the building they had gotten. There were bars on the windows, and although Obi-Wan and Siri watched it for several hours, nobody came in or out.

"I'm sure this is it," she told Obi-Wan, her stomach going into knots in anticipation. Somehow she knew that not only Krayn, but the answer to this mystery would be in there. "Ready to go in and deal with what we find?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Obi-Wan answered.

They broke open one of the windows, waited a second to see if there would be an alarm, but at least there wasn't an audible one. So they crawled through and then started looking around as quietly as possible.

Before long, Siri realized that she sensed someone familiar that she hadn't expected to be there.

"What's my mother doing here?" she asked Obi-Wan. "There's no way I could mistake that presence."

"Probably looking for the being who tried to have you killed." He answered. This made sense, although Siri wished she had known her mother was on the planet.

"And I don't sense Krayn at all." Siri used to be able to sense him from anywhere inside the factory, but now there was nothing except some slaves and her mother.

Obi-Wan looked surprised. "Are you sure he's not using Force shields?"

Siri shrugged. "I have no idea if he even knows how to use them. I don't know who would have taught him."

They kept going, dodging the security droids as they went, until they found the landing that looked over where the slaves mined the glitterstim spice.

And they saw Adi Gallia in the dark, standing over a body.

"It's not what you think," she said. It being dark, Siri had no idea what she was talking about.

Then she noticed that the body below her mother, with a lightsaber through it, looked exactly like her father. Siri couldn't believe her eyes, blinked, but he was still there.

"Well, then, what exactly am I supposed to think?"

"I could sense that it wasn't your father. Then he attacked me and taunted you, and it led to this." Siri could tell for the first time just how shaken her mother in fact was by this whole bizarre situation.

"Who is he then? And how does he look just like Dad?"

"I don't know," Siri could tell that her mother really didn't have any better explanation than she did about who he was.

At this point, Siri realized that she could sense her father, somewhere in the building.

"Mom, do you sense Dad as well? We have to find him and get to the bottom of this."

"I've been able to sense him since I came in this place," she answered. "I have no idea exactly where he is though."

The three of them started to search though every room and hallway in the place. The further they got to the bottom – where the slaves worked – the more urgently Siri could sense her father.

Eventually, they found a locked room at the bottom that certainly was where he was. They broke the lock using their lightsabers, and sure enough, there was her father. He looked disheveled, but it was definitely him.

The first thing he did was glare at her mother, to Siri's shock.

"I heard you up there. How could you possibly think that's I'd ever harm our daughter?" he said. Simon then turned to Siri. "First of all, it wasn't me. I've been stuck in here the whole time. Apparently I've been doubled."

"Go back a second," said Siri. "How is doubling possible?"

"K-Directorate doesn't want anyone to know this, but as you've found out for yourselves," Simon's voice trailed off. "It's a secret project of ours. Using someone's DNA, you can make yourself be a genetic duplicate of that person. We were hoping to use it as part of our missions, but Krayn stole it."

"So that's what happened." This was all starting to make sense to Siri. "Krayn stole it because he wanted to be a double."

"Yes," began Simon. "And I think he wanted to be a double of me so that he could torture you thinking that it was me who wanted you dead."

Siri started to feel sick knowing that someone hated her enough to go through a whole elaborate plan to torture her. But at least she knew that Simon was completely innocent in the whole thing for certain – not that she'd ever thought the situation with the hit man was that simple.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The more that the Jedi thought about this revelation, the more frightening it became to them. "Then we need to find this Project Helix before someone else gets doubled," said Siri.

"Do you have any idea where it is?" Obi-Wan asked Simon.

"It's got to be here somewhere if Krayn never sold it, which he could very well have been planning to do," Simon answered. "That's all I know."

So the four of them ended up looking around the factory in near-darkness, looking for Project Helix, and trying to get some light in the place by taking down the bars. They didn't see anything that looked like a laboratory or any vat that looked familiar to Simon, which made them think that Krayn had likely sold it to the Covenant while pretending to be Simon.

This of course led to the question of how they were supposed to get Project Helix back from the Covenant. Simon knew where they were, but he couldn't talk to the Covenant agents about getting it back since he supposedly just sold it to them. And Obi-Wan and Siri suspected they still might be recognized from when they were in their offices pretending to be Slam and Valadon. This left Simon to call K-Directorate and tell them what had happened. He would also suggest that Adi talk to the Covenant pretending to be someone interested in buying Project Helix from them and see what they said.

Although K-Directorate was happy that Simon was alive, they were frustrated that someone who was not one of them had been doubling without their permission and that Simon didn't have Project Helix back. So they were desperate enough to agree to their plan even though they normally didn't want to work with Jedi.

"Any idea of who would know about Project Helix besides K-Directorate?" Adi asked Simon.

"Nobody was supposed to know about it before it was stolen," he answered. "But by now probably the entire Galactic Underworld, not to mention all the spy agencies have probably heard something."

Siri liked the idea of her parents working together again. Although the chances of her mother completely stopping the harping on K-Directorate weren't good, she was going to enjoy the moment. After all, they hadn't worked together since she was old enough to understand just what Jedi work involved.

They came up with an Underworld name that the Covenant would not be likely to know personally, but would have heard of. This person might be interested in doubling and was about her mother's age, so it was perfect for her to ask the Covenant if Project Helix was for sale pretending to be her. Siri got some entertainment out of Simon's coaching and remembered the coaching she'd had for her own undercover missions. It was better to have her mother having the coaching as Siri would have been perfectly happy to never have to pretend to be anyone else ever again after all the mission she'd been on.

Before long, everyone had to wait as Adi Gallia contacted the Covenant to see what they would say to an offer to sell Project Helix. After a minute however, Siri could sense that the conversation was not going well. This was confirmed with the look on her mother's face when she came back.

"They told me that they have Project Helix, but it's not for sale at any price," she said. "So do we want to break into Covenant headquarters again?"

Siri was not looking forward to the idea, but they didn't really have much of a choice unless they wanted to leave Project Helix with the Covenant. So they had to decide how they were going to get admitted. And even if they were, using the Slam gang or some other underworld identity they knew that they wouldn't be able to just be led into the room where the Covenant scientists were keeping Project Helix. They would have to pretend to be interested in something else and fight their way into the room.

So they decided that they'd have to somehow get a map of the place, which Simon thought K-Directorate just might have. It would show which of the rooms in their complex might be able to be used as a laboratory. As it turned out, K-Directorate had the plans of the complex, which they were able to send to Simon even though he was with Jedi. They were still desperate to get Project Helix back and didn't see how it would hurt them for the Jedi to have the Covenant facility's plans.

Looking at the plans, it was obvious which room could be used as a laboratory. Although that was helpful, the next question was how they were going to get in there. After all, it obviously wasn't like the Covenant was just about to let them walk in there and take Project Helix. They eventually decided they'd have to just break in as quickly and quietly as possible, destroying any guard droids that they found. Using the Jedi Mind Trick on anyone they ran into, which seemed most likely, could also be necessary.

They went to the Covenant headquarters on a scouting mission first, to see what they could find in person. They left their speeder a ways away and walked in to be less conspicuous, but still had to use a Jedi mind trick on the guard of the compound. Sure enough, every entrance was guarded by droids, and they weren't absolutely certain that their weapons would be set at stun. There would also be sure to be alarms, like the one they remembered, and they could see the bars on every window.

Naturally, the laboratory didn't have any windows. They did find the nearest window to it, however.

"That's how we're going to get in," said Simon. "Do we care if we set off the alarm while doing it?"

"It'll get everyone outside where they could see us," said Siri. "At least that's what happened the last time we were here."

"Great, that just means there won't be anyone in the laboratory," replied Simon. So that became their plan. They would just break open the window and get in as fast as they could before anyone came outside in response to the alarm. Then they would find Project Helix and get it in a container that it could be stored in.

Then they'd have to get out of the complex somehow, but nobody had any brilliant ideas of how they were going to just walk out of there with Project Helix. They'd probably head back out the window that they used to come in, but everyone in the Covenant would be outside due to the alarm.

"Do you think there's a back entrance we could get through with a lightsaber and the Jedi Mind Trick?" Obi-Wan asked.

None of them were absolutely sure about that, so they went back to the plans. As it turned out, there was a back entrance that none of them had used before. Keeping their distance, they went around the perimeter of the compound to see what it looked like. There was a narrow locked gate and a guard at the guard station, but that was all they could see. Then they left to go back to their ship and go over the plan one more time.

The next day, they went back to the compound, determined not to leave without Project Helix. There weren't many people outside the compound, so they were able to walk up to the window relatively easily, only destroying a couple of guard droids. This was, however, when they knew very well that things would get more difficult.

Adi Gallia started breaking the bars using her lightsaber, which was when Obi-Wan and Siri heard the alarm go off. They got in the building as quickly as possible and made their way to the laboratory. Sure enough, Project Helix was there, and the alarm was still ringing. As Simon knew the most about Project Helix, he got it ready to be transported while the Jedi stood guard. Before long, they were ready to go.

Although they managed to get to the nearest window without too many problems, they knew that there would be more beings outside. There was no choice but to go for it.

After they were out, they certainly did have to keep their weapons out and the Jedi Mind Trick ready to be used. Although they never got used to this, no matter how many missions they went on, they made it as carefully and quickly as they could to the back entrance. Luckily most of the Covenant was towards the front entrance while they tried to figure out what had set off the alarm. So they mainly had to deal with the guard droids.

There was still the guard to deal with, however. And it appeared that he just might be too strong-minded for the Jedi Mind Trick to work on him. Sure enough, he called out "What are you doing here, and how'd you get in?"

"We can go about our business," started Obi-Wan, waving his hand.

"No, you can't! You people are Jedi, and I know no Jedi are allowed in here today." He took out handcuffs and tried to have them arrested.

They ended up having to take the handcuffs from him and chained him to the guard station. That's when they got out of the Covenant compound and Siri realized that they would have to say goodbye to Simon.

"I've got to take Project Helix back to K-Directorate," he explained. "But I can't thank you three enough for helping me to recover it."

Siri always hated saying goodbye to him, especially since they'd started working together, but she had no choice. At least he should be able to be found again and she'd gotten her proof that he hadn't in fact hired that hit man.

Her mother looked a little uncertain at letting him walk off with Project Helix, but even she had to admit that K-Directorate had invented it, so it belonged to them. So the Jedi said good-bye to Simon and they went their separate ways.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

A/N: Jedi Kay-Kenobi: I think you'll like the first part of this chapter at least. (-: And more twists and turns to come – for example, Project Helix is coming back.

It wasn't long after the issue with Project Helix that Obi-Wan asked Siri if she would go to the Holographic zoo with him. It wasn't often that he asked her to do something fun around Coruscant, so she said yes, but part of her wondered if there was a special occasion. After all, it wasn't like they often got a chance to watch holograms of extinct animals or even watch a holofilm. They were just kept too busy and had gotten into the routine of only spending time at each other's places when they were both on Coruscant.

Maybe it was Obi-Wan trying to prove Anakin wrong when he'd recently claimed that Obi-Wan and Siri were "getting too boring and predictable" when they didn't want to go out one night. Although Anakin had teased them, he actually couldn't have been too disappointed as it gave him a chance to be alone with Padmé Naberrie. She and Anakin had been seeing each other ever since Anakin and Obi-Wan were assigned to protect her after that assassination attempt. They seemed to be getting serious quickly.

Siri didn't realize just how special an occasion it was until the two of them walked out of the temple and his speeder wasn't there. Instead there was an absolutely gorgeous rented speeder with a driver so the two of them could sit in the back. As the two rode to the Holographic zoo, Siri began to have a suspicion about what was happening. After all, it wasn't like him to plan expensive dates with a rented speeder for something that wasn't a special occasion. And Siri was sure that it wasn't anyone's birthday or a holiday or anything like that. This could only mean so many things, and it made her think of Obi-Wan's occasionally odd questions lately, which she now realized were meant to help in planning this.

Sure enough, when they got there, they didn't actually spend a lot of time looking at the holograms of extinct animals. Instead, Obi-Wan seemed to want to find a secluded spot. As it was getting later, this was easy as most of the families had gone home. They still tried one spot after the other, but it was a while before any seemed to satisfy Obi-Wan. He seemed entirely too nervous to be paying any attention to the holographic animals he had supposedly invited Siri to come watch with. That was the last sign that he had invited her here for something else entirely.

When he was sure he had her attention, he held both her hands in his and began.

"You're the most amazing woman, so beautiful inside and out. I don't know what I did to get the Force to give us to each other and for you to give me another chance. I love you so much."

Siri's breath was just taken away. "Obi-Wan?" was all that came out. Siri knew that this might happen someday, but she hadn't expected this particular night. Time seemed to slow down and she was focusing more on Obi-Wan. She didn't want to miss this by being distracted by anything, but put this in her memory forever.

"And I want to spend the rest of my life making you as happy as you make me." Siri had never seen him look so nervous, even on their most dangerous missions. "Siri Tachi, will you marry me?"

As much as she'd been expecting this since entering the speeder, she realized that she hadn't thought about how she was going to reply. "Yes!" she ended up screaming out, leading to the clapping of the few bystanders. "Of course I'll marry you," she added, a little more quietly. The two of them kissed like they would never stop. It didn't seem to matter that there were strangers around.

"I'd had this all planned out for shortly after you left," Obi-Wan admitted on their way out of the zoo. "Remember when I asked if you'd ever been in a luxury speeder?"

"Actually, I vaguely do." Siri had been surprised by the question enough to remember it years later, but hadn't realized what it meant until this moment. "You were planning to propose back then?"

"Yes, I was." Obi-Wan looked distant. "And then you disappeared before I got the courage too. And by the time you came back there seemed no point in mentioning it."

This was a sad shock to Siri for some reason. She knew she should have mentioned going undercover to Ob-Wan before she left, but the Council had been so insistent. At least things in her life were looking up – and she now knew for sure that Obi-Wan wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. She hadn't realized she needed that kind of security so badly until she actually got it. Now, she was finally going to be Mrs. Kenobi officially, and it felt amazingly good, even though she was never the type to care about the party aspect. It was hearing how much she meant to him that mattered most of all, not the title or the legal part.

For some reason, they took their time announcing that they were now engaged. Maybe it was because of what Siri's mother had said about Obi-Wan not being good enough for her. Maybe it was because they wanted to calm down first so as to seem more Jedi-like. The best reason would be that they wanted to just bask in their news for a while, which they did in any case, no matter the actual reason for waiting to tell the Galaxy. In any case, they told Anakin they were engaged even before they told Siri's mom. This was probably as they knew that he'd be happy about the news and they didn't want any cautious statements yet. "That's great!" he told them. "You two are ready for that step." It was great to have his support as he'd have to be the Best Man. Besides, she'd often thought of him as like a little brother she'd never actually had and certainly part of the family.

Even Adi Gallia, when they told her a couple of days later, took the news better than they thought she would. "I know he makes you happy, and I was wrong about him," she told Siri. "He really is a fine man and a fine Jedi." This got Siri to breathe a sigh of relief, as getting married really was so much easier knowing that her mother approved.

Siri wasn't even making wedding plans yet, she was just happily getting used to being engaged. It wasn't just that she wasn't exactly an event planner and was just happy knowing that Obi-Wan was hers again, she felt that the Force was telling her to wait some more.

As it turned out, there was a good reason for putting off the wedding, although it certainly did eventually happen. One day not long after this, Obi-Wan invited Siri on a weekend away on the other

side of Coruscant. For some reason she could sense that this was more than a mini-vacation, though she couldn't tell what it could possibly be.

She learned the truth as they were packed and in the speeder, ready to leave.

"We don't actually get a vacation," he started.

"What are you talking about?" Siri asked, somehow getting scared about what this could mean. Why would they possibly pack their bags if they weren't going on a weekend away? But then again, she could sense that he had been nervous about talking about this weekend, as though it was a dangerous mission.

"I'm being sent undercover," he said. "And I'm not sure exactly when I'll be back at the Temple."

They'd done that before, but not involving packing bags for a vacation first. "And where does this supposed weekend away fit into this?"

"We're supposed to get in a bad wreck on the way there so everyone think I'm in the medical center," he answered. "But the Council hired a stunt driver, so we'll really be just fine."

"What an elaborate prep for this," she exclaimed. "What's the mission all about?" It had better be important to involve faking an accident and making her think she was getting a vacation she was never going to actually get.

"Bringing down the Covenant once and for all," he said. "Believe me, we wouldn't try this for anything less."

It was sinking in that the two of them would be separated for who knew how long again. Her mood, which had been high at the idea of a mini-vacation, was suddenly sinking faster than she thought possible. They were never going to get there as their duties were interfering yet again. Instead, they'd get in some prearranged crash that she was supposed to pretend was an accident. And who knew when their wedding would actually happen.

It was enough to make her feel as though she was in that medical center already.

Before the crash, Obi-Wan told her as much as he knew about the mission. The Council thought that the Covenant was paying attention to what the Jedi were doing and might even have a spy somewhere. So they'd be sure to hear the news that one of the most famous ones was stuck in some medical center after a speeder crash, which would make them less suspicious that it was him. Then he would pretend to join them for a time while learning all he could about how they ran things and how to best stop any of their illegal doings.

This would have actually made sense had Siri not absolutely hated the idea of being separated from the man she loved due to missions yet another time.

The next thing Siri knew, their speeder had been hit, which somehow caused damage to it while leaving her just fine. The stunt driver must have been good. Then the two of them called emergency services, pretending of course that Obi-Wan had been horribly hurt. The ambulance appeared in no time, taking him away.

At the medical center, the first thing that Siri noticed, oddly enough, was the smell. The antiseptic almost made her feel sick to her stomach. She wondered how long she should stay there as it wasn't like Ob-Wan was actually a patient in the place. So she mostly paced the halls and commed her mother to see if she had any information about what she was supposed to be doing, but she didn't answer.

Eventually she sat down on one of the couches and it hit her that she didn't know when she'd see Obi-Wan again. This thought made her just as miserable as if he actually was hurt and in the medical center. This was probably a good thing in case anyone from the Covenant was bothering to watch, though that was hard to say for sure. She didn't sense anything strange from anyone there or see any hidden cameras offhand though.

Anakin showed up eventually. "I just heard about this yesterday," he started. "The Council sent me here to make this look real and tell you to head back home. They have some secret way we can reach Ob-Wan."

"They do?" This made her perk up for the first time since she heard about this horrible undercover mission.

"Sure, I've sent a message to him already. There's nothing we can do here though."

Suddenly another wave of nausea came over Siri. "Is it just me or does the antiseptic smell really bad here?"

Anakin looked concerned. "It does smell bad, but my stomach's fine."

So with that, the two of them headed back to the Temple. She'd never spent time with Anakin alone but it would have been enjoyable if she hadn't been so worried about Obi-Wan. She could sense that he was worried too, even if he didn't want to admit the possibility that anything could go wrong. So it was a fairly quiet trip back, which was fairly unusual for them.

When they got home, she unpacked the bag that was going to go on the trip that she'd managed to take out of the speeder wreckage and bring to the medical center. Going into the kitchenette to fix something for dinner, she realized that nothing sounded good. None of the food smelled right, either. And her stomach was so bad she threw up in the fresher about a minute after thinking about dinner. It was at this point that Siri began to suspect that something more than the antiseptic smell and stress was going on. Even at her worst moments, she'd never actually been stressed enough to actually vomit. So she forgot all about dinner and tried to fall asleep, although she thought she'd never be able to. She couldn't usually sleep when there was as much on her mind as she had this particular very long day.

As it turned out, though, she was able to fall asleep. She must have been more tired than she thought. Well, she knew that stress could do that – and the past day or two had been absolutely nothing but stress and confusion.


	18. Chapter 18

A/N Yes, the "Spy Family" is about to add another member (-: Oh, and I'm leaving town for Christmas tomorrow, so I may not be able to update until Dec. 27th. I promise to keep posting until this is finished though.

Chapter 18

The next morning, she thought that she could get some food in her as long as it wasn't meat. That and some of the other food still wasn't tasting the way it should. Then she commed Anakin to see if he'd heard from Obi-Wan as she couldn't wait to get a message to him. He answered right away and seemed to be expecting her to comm. As it turned out, he'd sent a message saying he hadn't even tried to contact the Covenant yet, but was trying to meet as many people as he could under his new identity. Everything seemed to be going fine so far.

Even though Obi-Wan didn't answer his comm, she was able to send a message and got one in reply later that day. It said to send as many messages as possible and of course that he loved her very much and he was sorry they had to be separated like this yet again. The best part was that he was counting the days until he could get back to her and they could finally get married.

Siri knew she'd send a message every day if she possibly could. It would be the only way the two of them would survive this separation. It had only been a couple of days but she was already starting to worry about him and he just couldn't get home soon enough. This was the most miserable separation they'd had, especially as she knew this was no ordinary mission for him. But it was still great to be able to send a message, at least for the time being. She had no idea how or if things would change once he started actually working for the Covenant.

And as her stomach felt queasy again, even throughout the excitement of getting the message, she knew she'd have to get to the bottom of what the matter with her was. Although she hated going to the doctor and being put in patient mode, she was thinking she really should get some testing done and go from there. It was getting harder and harder to deny that something was not quite the same with her body. Soon she would have a hard time keeping up with her schedule and then the Council and her mother would be asking for answers.

So she made herself make an appointment, even though she still generally hated the idea of going. She had to know if this was the stomach flu or food poisoning or something else that she was almost starting to let herself think possible. As it had been more than a day and she still felt like this, she had to admit that she was kidding herself to think it was the flu, but it was a possibility. She hadn't been eating much since the crash and nothing that smelled or tasted bad, but she supposed some food poisoning was a possibility as well.

But what wouldn't leave her mind, what she really had to know, was whether or not she was pregnant. This was starting to feel exactly like the way her mother had described being pregnant with her. Siri still remembered her mother's story of going to buy food and noticing that nothing smelled right, which was her first sign that she was pregnant with Siri. Although she and Obi-Wan had been careful, she supposed that was a possibility. If it was true, she wanted to know as soon as she could so she could start planning life with a baby. Not to mention so she could get the wondering time period over with.

She hadn't even thought about whether she'd stop going on missions or how she'd tell Obi-Wan. And now if it was true she'd have to survive a pregnancy without the father around. It sounded lonely just thinking about it and she hadn't even confirmed it yet. As thought she wasn't lonely enough already, now there could be a baby needing a father.

When she went to the medic later that day and told him her suspicions, he certainly thought that being pregnant was a possibility. "I'm not 100% sure why you're experiencing nausea, but when was the start of your last cycle?"

Siri tried to remember when it was but she couldn't. She hadn't been keeping track as well as she should, especially since she'd been on pills to only have an occasional cycle.

"Let's do a pregnancy test then," he said. "We can get the results right away." Her blood was drawn before she knew it and taken to the laboratory in the back of the medical offices.

Sure enough, the doctor came in just a few minutes after her blood draw with the look of someone trying to give someone they didn't know well life-changing news.

"Well, it came back positive," he told her. Siri's first reaction was absolute shock. After all, there is a difference between suspecting life-changing news and actually confirming life-changing news. She'd have to somehow figure out how to be a mother.

Siri's second reaction was to smile as she hadn't realized how much she wanted a baby until she was actually pregnant. She was seeing in her mind's eye an adorable little girl going through the same milestones she'd been through. Never mind that there was no way to know for sure this early whether the baby was a boy or a girl. She was sure the two of them would figure out how to adjust their lifestyle to accommodate a baby. Not to mention it was a relief to know she hadn't been going crazy thinking she was sick and everything smelled terrible. "I'm glad this is good news."

"Yeah, it really is," she said. "Now I just have to figure out how to tell my fiancé." At least they were engaged before this happened. It was just terrible timing that he'd have to get life changing news via a secret message while on this mission of his. She'd always thought he'd be there by her side when she received news like this.

As she left the doctor's office, she was on to her third reaction of wanting to know the future but not being able to tell what would happen. When would Obi-Wan come back from that mission? Would they be able to keep on going on missions around the Galaxy with a baby to take care of? How would they possibly adjust to being parents? How was she going to tell everyone?

That last thought was especially on her mind as it was time to send another message to Obi-Wan. She had different wordings in her head, and she typed out each one to see which she thought sounded best. It seemed hours before it was ready to send, but eventually she did. Now there was nothing to do but wait for the reply, which she was sure would be supportive, if as shocked as she was.

After sending the message to Obi-Wan, Siri decided that she might as well get around to telling her mother she was pregnant and hope for the best. On one hand, babies were good news, and it wasn't like Siri was a teenager. On the other, she was sure her mother would be concerned about Siri giving up the going on missions around the Galaxy lifestyle that Siri loved so much. She'd also be concerned about Siri going through a pregnancy alone. Siri had a feeling that her mother would be going over her concerns first, which she didn't want to hear. That was probably why Siri took a little time before telling her that she was going to be a grandmother.

Sure enough, her pessimistic mother went through all of her concerns first. "It's possible to be a mother and a Jedi, I should know as well as anyone. But you realize you're going to either have to work in the Temple or be separated from the baby a lot of the time. And you've never been around small children much."

"I know, but we haven't even decided for sure how we're handling this yet. I don't think I want to go on away missions for a while, though." Siri just wanted her mother to trust that she would be able to handle motherhood, even though Siri had her own worries. They were just going to have to figure something out so the baby could be raised well.

After another minute of listening to her mother worry, she decided she just had to put a stop to it. "Mom. Can we just celebrate the baby for now and put off the worries and decision making for now?"

Luckily her mother seemed agreeable to this. "You could be a great mom, I'm sure, so yes." The two of them actually had some decent mother-daughter bonding time for the first time in a while. Her mother gave her several pregnancy and raising a child tips. But more importantly, Siri heard stories she'd never heard before about when she was a baby that made her laugh. She hadn't thought that possible with Obi-Wan gone. They also had a great dinner together with some of the foods her mother remembered not making her queasy when she was pregnant, and she was able to keep it down somehow.

"I don't know anything about babies," Siri realized. Her mother was always good for getting her to realize what she didn't know. It was one of the things that irritated her, although she knew her mother was generally trying to help. It was just that often they were concerns that Siri had already thought of and didn't need her mother voicing.

"You've got more of an adjustment ahead of you than you imagine," said her mother. "But the truth is that plenty of parents don't have a lot of experience with babies before they become parents." Siri was sure that was true. She'd never considered herself a baby person until she actually found out that she was pregnant. She'd have to spend some time in the crèche figuring out what to do with babies before hers was actually born.

"So it's on the job training, so to speak?"

"Exactly," her mother said. "I had to pick up what to do with you quickly. It's more than worth it though."

But before long, she'd gone to check if there was a message from Obi-Wan. There it was, right on the screen:

That's the most amazing, wonderful news. This gives me all the more reason to get back to you as soon as I can. I know that we can make great parents – don't worry, we'll figure out how to be both parents and Jedi. As for the mission, I've met plenty of people who claim they can introduce me to the Covenant, but no good information on them yet. I'm hopeful I will be able to get into their compound before we know it though.

Siri was glad that Obi-Wan knew that he was going to be a father, even though she still felt terrible that he had to find out the way he did. But really, what else was she going to do – shock him with a baby when he returned? So she was determined to make the best of the situation and somehow send messages of each baby development. She sent a message back asking how the mission was coming along and assuring him that she would be fine until he came back. She didn't want him to worry about her when he had a mission to concentrate on.

The next day, she realized that she hadn't told her father yet. So she commed him, and luckily he answered his comm right away.

"Siri! What leads to you calling your old man?" Simon sounded surprised to hear from her and Siri realized that she probably didn't comm him often enough.

Well, it wasn't like he was there during most of her growing up years.

"Well, Dad, I have some big news."

"I haven't heard anything from you since you got engaged. What's the news?"

"I'm pregnant and Obi-Wan's gone on a mission. I don't know when he'll be back at the Temple." There, get it out with the fewest words possible.

"Are you going to be all right until he gets back?" It was reassuring to hear that someone was concerned about her, even though she knew she'd figure this out somehow.

"I'm going to have to be, I can't just call him back from a mission like this for anything."

"I'm sure. You two certainly are dedicated Jedi, no matter what missions you're assigned to. At least your mother's there for you at the Temple. I just might have to pay you a visit too if you can think of a place where we can meet."

Unsurprisingly, Simon was still forbidden from entering the Jedi Temple under any circumstances. Siri supposed she couldn't blame the Council for thinking that he might be trying to get more information for K-Directorate. But they did find a place and time that they could meet at. It was at a café that Obi-Wan had introduced her to owned by his friend Dex.

"I can't believe my baby's having a baby," began Simon. "And I suppose you have no idea when Obi-Wan will be back?"

"I'm not a baby any more, Dad," said Siri. "And no, I don't know when he's going to be back. It could take some time before he's even allowed to join the Covenant."

"I hope you don't feel guilty about telling me that," Simon said. "I want them brought down just as much as the Jedi Council does, believe me."

"No, I really don't," said Siri. "I know you've had your problems with the Covenant before, or I wouldn't have said anything."

The droid showed up then to take their order. When it was gone, Simon pretended to be disappointed.

"You don't trust me more than that?" Simon wasn't completely kidding, Siri could tell, although Siri could also tell that he understood.

"I trust you. It's just that I know very well that you have different loyalties, and I don't want to put you in a tough spot."

"I'll be fine. I've been able to manage with different loyalties this long – well, sort of. I have you and K-Directorate and was even able to work with your mom."

"That's true." Siri smiled. "So, do you have any baby advice?"

"They do change your life forever," said Simon. "But the Council keeps you so busy I expect you're used to not getting much sleep. Seriously, though, you've grown into such a bright young woman I'm sure you can figure it out – though I hope Obi-Wan comes back soon. Babies are so much easier to handle when you have help. It seems like they always need something because they can't do anything for themselves yet."

"That's what I thought," said Siri. "And nobody's hoping that Obi-Wan is back soon more than me, believe me. These past days have been horrible."

"I bet. Have you even been able to start the wedding planning?"

"I've thought of some places we can hold it at, but that's about it. I'm just not an event planner is what I'm finding."

"I know you've never been an especially feminine girl, but as long as it's the wedding and not the marriage that's holding you back." Simon didn't sound like he was anywhere near convinced that this was the case though. Although he hadn't been around for most of their relationship, he knew that

Siri was absolutely in love with Obi-Wan and had met him enough times to know how good they were for each other.

"Oh no, it's not Obi-Wan at all. I'm just so happy we're finally back together and we're staying together this time."

"That's what I thought. This should make me feel old –being a grandpa and all – but I'm just happy for you."

They had a congratulatory hug then, and it brought back good memories from before Simon was sent to prison. But not long after that, they had to return to their separate lives. Simon was doing something for K-Directorate and Siri had to find out what she was going to do since she actually wasn't feeling up to going on missions around the Galaxy and likely wouldn't be able to until the baby was older. Plus she had to send a message to Obi-Wan and find out how his mission was coming along. Maybe soon he'd actually be able to get some good information on the Covenant which could lead to a raid on their compound. Siri couldn't get him off her mind, so she sent him a message even before she went to find out what her afternoon duty was. After all, it wouldn't take long and would make her feel better.

But the latest message had no response for a long time.


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: I still have 10 more installment coming after Christmas. Merry Christmas to all my readers. (-:

Oh, and I now wish I'd chosen the other option Jedi Kay-Kenobi gave, but I already wrote this. Hope all my readers like in any case.

Chapter 19

This having to wait and see when a message would arrive had Siri absolutely panicked. It was the worst feeling to have to wait at the Temple for a message that may or may not appear any time, much less in the near future. She didn't even have a mission of her own to distract her as she had been put on odd jobs around the Temple duty due to her being pregnant. The jobs, while necessary to the Temple running smoothly, were boring enough that she could do them and focus on what might be happening to Obi-Wan at that moment at the same time. She had a fairly good idea of what could happen if Obi-Wan got caught and couldn't fight his way out of the compound. The very idea made her shudder.

Siri was also worried that she wasn't taking good enough care of the baby. The fear for Obi-Wan and her own morning sickness meant that she was rarely hungry just as she was supposed to be eating more. At least she was sleeping a lot – somehow pregnancy was exhausting – and she was avoiding all that the doctor had told her to avoid. She supposed she would eat whenever she got hungry and that would just have to be enough for the two of them. Maybe when she got bigger and Obi-Wan was home she would be hungry more often. She'd also heard that stress on the mother was bad for the baby. She wasn't sure what she could do about that but keep meditating, which was harder and harder the longer Obi-Wan was away.

Finally, one day at last she saw a message from Obi-Wan. She couldn't read it fast enough to find out how he was doing.

I can't tell you how sorry I am that it's been so long since you've heard from me. I just couldn't take a chance that the Covenant would catch me sending you a message. I'm fine at the moment, but they've been watching me incredibly closely. I can't even tell if they suspect me or they watch all their new employees carefully. I still haven't found out anything interesting we don't already know, but hopefully soon. Write as soon as you can and let me know how you and the baby are.

While discouraged that Obi-Wan wasn't yet coming home, she was more excited at the moment that he was fine and actually working for the Covenant. This meant that the mission was actually getting somewhere, even if Obi-Wan was in more danger. She supposed she had to take this one step at a time, like so much in her life so far. She couldn't even think of the possibility that he was never coming home, so he would be back sooner or later. He just had to. And she just had to survive until he came back to her. She just had to.

So Siri wrote back to Obi-Wan in reply:

I'm so glad that you're all right and are making progress with this mission. Don't worry about me; you have to focus all your energy on this. I'm doing odd jobs around the Temple instead of going on missions, as you can imagine, but the baby and I are just fine. Do you have any name ideas? I don't want to say what my ideas are as I don't want to influence you at all.

After that message, Obi-Wan was somehow able to write back more often, which helped Siri get through their separation a little easier. Most likely the Covenant trusted him more than they had at the beginning, so they weren't watching his communications as carefully. Either that or he'd been able to encode the messages so the Covenant couldn't get them. Of course, Siri didn't care as long as she was getting the messages and the Covenant wasn't getting them.

Several months after he'd left, there was an excited sounding message:

I've got both their plans and a list of missions they're sending their agents on. This could be exactly what the Council is looking to get their hands on. The only problem is of course I'm not supposed to access it, so I'm not sure how to send it to the Council at this point. I'll have to figure out how to send something from their computer giving the computer someone else's identity.

P.S. I love Isabelle for a girl, which you seem so sure the baby is. The root is "beautiful." May she be as beautiful in every way just like her mother.

Siri concentrated on the first part of the message first. She was so proud that Obi-Wan had gotten so far in such a short amount of time. It was looking like he might be home before she knew it, which was good as she was starting to get big. She couldn't imagine actually having the baby without Obi-Wan around. After all, then she'd be the one solely responsible for all the baby's needs and she somehow thought there was a good chance she would want help with that. Babies certainly seemed to need constant day or night care from what little she knew about them.

As for the P.S., she had to think about the name Isabelle and even sounded it out to herself. She decided that she liked it. It fit the two of them and the images in the mind that she'd had of the baby. She also still got a thrill somehow from Obi-Wan writing that she was beautiful and he was taking the baby news so well.

So Siri wrote back about his latest development as well as the name suggestion:

You be careful and take as long as you need to get out of there safely. I wish I had a better idea of how you could get someone else's password for the computer, but apparently my brain is mush or I just have to be there to learn where they keep the passwords. Can't wait to see you though – I'm still waiting for you and it's not getting any easier to wait around the Temple.

P.S. I love the name Isabelle for a girl. I had to sound it out loud when I got your message and I liked the way I said it.

She always felt best after sending messages to Obi-Wan, especially after sending one like this. It was not only their way of being connected with each other, it was their way of keeping each other updated with what was going on in the other's lives. It was Siri's way of not going insane with worry that the Covenant had caught Obi-Wan. True, going insane with worry wasn't very Jedi-like, but some things just couldn't be helped. Not being able to be perfectly calm when the man she loved and wanted to spend the rest of her life with was in danger was just one of those things. She just hoped she wouldn't hear about it from anyone on the Council including her mother.

According to her mother, who after all had all the information the Council had, Obi-Wan was expected to be home before the baby was born and the mission was going as well as could be expected. Siri was still glad she could send her private messages to reassure herself that the Council was in fact telling the whole story. While she couldn't see them lying to her outright, she knew they wouldn't want her to worry and would downplay the danger that Obi-Wan was in. But hearing in his own words what was going on made her feel more confident that she had the whole story and everything was in fact going according to schedule. That was the most important part that she just had to know about, for the longer that he stayed the more danger he could potentially be in from the Covenant. Nothing that sounded all that dangerous had been mentioned this far, however.

Siri got an interesting message shortly afterwards explaining in more detail and updating her on his plan to break into the Covenant computer and see what information he could get for the Council.

I've pretended to have lost my password and had who I think is the most naïve person here let me borrow his. I'm going to use it the next chance I get to access the computer and download as much as I can onto mine. Then I should be able to send it to the Council easily and we'll see if it's enough for a raid on this compound.

P.S I love that you tried my name idea out loud.

Siri had to laugh out loud while reading that last line. He probably thought that she would insist on her own name idea. After all, she could be a strong-willed young woman who'd never been one to just go along with any idea of Obi-Wan's. This was true even though she loved him – she still needed her own identity and to come up with he own ideas.

But as for the rest of the message, Siri had to admit that the plan, while simple, just might work. She'd had to do similarly simple plans before while undercover and sometimes they were just what was needed to finish the mission. At least even if it didn't work the worker for the Covenant would be the first one that the heads would go to if they realized whose password was used. They'd just have to wait for a good opportunity when Obi-Wan was alone at one of their computers and see how much could possibly be downloaded. Come to think of it, Siri wasn't exactly sure how much information the Council was insisting that Obi-Wan get from the Covenant before they would allow a raid. But it would have to be enough if Obi-Wan was going to get to come back to the Temple any time in the near future.

Sure enough, the plan of Obi-Wan's actually worked. When Obi-Wan put the password in the Covenant's computer, he will able to access much of the Covenant's sensitive information and download it onto his own computer. When he sent Siri a message about this, she was absolutely thrilled. Now there was just one last step – to get the computer back to the Council. And this turned out to be a step that Siri could help with. She was glad to be useful, even though she knew that it didn't necessarily mean that Obi-Wan would be home immediately.

If you meet me somewhere near the Covenant's compound, I can give you the computer and you can take it back to the Council. Don't worry about what I'll say about it, I can make up some story that it was stolen. Then the Council can finally be able to start planning that raid.

Siri was happy to have an excuse to leave the Temple and of course was willing to do anything that might get Obi-Wan home sooner. So naturally she agreed to meet Obi-Wan to pick up the computer and have a reunion. This was even before confirming with the Council as Siri knew that they would of course want the information downloader on the computer and she wanted to increase her chance of being the one sent to get it. Luckily, they agreed to her being the one to go after Siri explained that she'd already told Ob-Wan that she was willing to go into Covenant territory and meet him. She'd go in typical clothes for the area rather than Jedi robes, but wouldn't come up with a complex undercover identity as she after all wasn't actually meeting with the Covenant.

When she got to the place, Obi-Wan was there already. As there weren't many people around, and nobody was paying attention to them, they got to have an all too short reunion.

It started with a hug and a kiss like they'd never let go. They didn't care if anyone in the establishment started to stare. Then Obi-Wan turned his attention to Siri's swollen abdomen.

"The baby somehow hasn't felt completely real until this moment," Obi-Wan said. "But there he or she is, all right."

"Why don't you feel?" asked Siri. "The baby's strong. You just might feel a kick." He touched her abdomen gently and sure enough, a minute later he smiled. "I felt something," he said. "This baby knows who the father is."

"I'm sure she does," said Siri, who was bubbling over with more excitement that she'd felt since Obi-Wan proposed. "I can't believe you're here in person."

"I can't believe it's you in person," Obi-Wan said. "But unfortunately we have to get to business. I have to show you the files and get back before the Covenant realizes that I'm gone."

They went over which of the files on the computer were downloaded from the Covenant's computer so Siri could explain to the Council which ones to look for and which information they provided. And before too long, it was time for them to go.

"You just have to be home for good soon," Siri said. "I just can't have the baby without you there."

"I'll be home soon after this," said Obi-Wan. "I've checked and this has everything the Council needs to order a raid. Then I'm back to the Temple for good."

They hugged and kissed like they'd never let go again, and then they left before the Covenant would likely get suspicious.

Siri had no choice at that point but to head home with the computer, feeling torn between excitement over seeing Obi-Wan in person and the Covenant being about to go down and a low feeling that the two were separated yet again. No matter how long they were together, she was never going to get used to this. They'd have to figure out a way to be a family that was only all together part of the time, and Siri wasn't sure how that worked as her mother had always been around.

When she got back to the Temple and showed the Council the computer and the files that were inside it, they were of course thrilled.

"This is just what we were looking for," Master Windu assured her. "We should be able to have a raid soon."

Siri's only disappointment was that she wasn't able to go and be part of the raid. Instead, Anakin and some other Jedi were going to use the plans that were in the computer to break in, arrest as many people as possible, and take as many stolen items as they could find. Siri was stuck at the Temple waiting to hear as much as she could about what was going on at the compound and when Obi-Wan would be home for good.

Before she knew it, she got yet another message from Obi-Wan.

The Covenant had a blow today. We've arrested several of their members and are returning several stolen projects. My only regret is that Jenna Zan Arbor escaped, but we'll send her back to prison another day when she shows herself. Right now I just want to focus on being myself again and coming home to you.

That was greater news than Siri hoped for. She hated just waiting for her man to come home like a helpless waif, and finally those days could stop. She and Obi-Wan could focus on just being with each other and the baby and figuring out how they were going to raise a baby and go on missions.

Sure enough, before long, there was a knock on the door of Siri's quarters. She could easily sense who it was and jumped up, which was getting harder now that she was getting so big. She opened the door, and there Obi-Wan was in person.

"Welcome home, Obi-Wan," she said as he came in. She was happy to see that he didn't look nearly as haunted as she had when she came home from her mission to take down an organization. In fact, he just looked thrilled.

"I would pick you up and twirl you around, but I'm not sure I can do that until after the baby's born." Siri unfortunately thought he was right. She would be so happy when she lost the baby weight, even thought that wasn't likely for months.

"How did the raid go down? I got your message, but it didn't say enough to satisfy my curiosity."

"It certainly shocked everyone there to have being coming in armed and telling them they were under arrest. When they saw that everyone was Jedi, though, most were arrested without a whole lot of resistance. Then we looked around for anything we thought might be important or stolen."

Siri remembered part of his message then and decided to see if Obi-Wan knew anything more. "And do you have any idea where Zan Arbor is now that she's avoided arrest?"

Obi-Wan shook his head. "Not at all, she managed to get out of the compound in all the commotion, but I don't want to talk about her now. I'm sure she'll show up eventually causing trouble somewhere. We'll deal with her then."

"Before we want her to, I'm sure. Well, I'm just so glad that you're finally home – and before the baby is born."

"I'm glad to be here, believe me. We're never going to be separated like that again if I can help it." He put his arms around her protectively.

"Not if I can help it either. I doubt the Council will send us on a mission like that as we're going to be parents, which is fine with me." Siri still wanted to be a Jedi and in a better capacity than she currently was, but not in deep undercover missions anymore. She wasn't sure that she ever actually did enjoy being undercover, even though she knew it was a great technique for catching certain kinds of criminals.

"Have you thought about what you want to do instead?" asked Obi-Wan. "I know you'd get incredibly bored doing odd jobs around the Temple long-term."

"Oh, I still want to go on missions and the Council still wants to send me on them when the baby gets a little older. It's just that I want to be me from now on."

"Me too, after that time in the Covenant," said Obi-Wan. "You feel so helpless not being able to stop those criminals from doing whatever they're doing to innocent people."

Siri nodded. "Are you thinking of anything in particular from there?"

"They still have Project Helix," said Obi-Wan. "We didn't get all of the materials. They were trying to decide who Zan Arbor should pretend to be."

Siri was shocked. "So Zan Arbor could be out there right now looking like she's someone else?"

"It certainly is. We didn't find any Project Helix in the raid."

That discouraged Siri, but not nearly enough to let it stop her from enjoying her reunion.

"You're right; we'll take care of that later. Now, why don't we plan on being up all night to enjoy each other's company before we have baby interruptions."

Obi-Wan looked like he'd been planning on that. "I trust you don't have anything scheduled for the rest of the day?"

"Not at all. I've just been waiting for you to get back ever since I got your message."

The two then just enjoyed each other's company the rest of that day and while they did end up having to sleep, it was well into the night. Siri filled him in on what had been going on at the Temple while he was gone, and Obi-Wan loved just being able to relax again and of course had to know everything she'd learned about the baby so far.

And there was a saying that being able to relax helped women go into labor, which must be true because when Siri woke up about two hours after they'd gone to bed, she was starting to feel contractions.


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Hey, I'm able to update from my laptop here! Yeah!

Chapter 20

Entirely too many hours later, a screaming baby was put into Siri's arms. And suddenly all the long painful hours in the med center were worth it. She supposed all new mothers thought this, but Isabelle, for the baby was a girl after all, was absolutely perfect. She calmed down after a minute of being held by her mother, and Siri was able to appreciate her big eyes and round little arms.

Obi-Wan was beaming by her side. "We did it," he said in awe. They certainly had gone through the birth of a child well, even if Siri was currently feeling nerve endings she didn't know existed.

"Yes, I did, and I thought that it would never end," Siri said. "Those who told me that childbirth wasn't as bad as it's made out to be were absolutely lying."

"But you did great, and she's perfect," Obi-Wan said. He had been great and stayed calm throughout the labor.

"Isn't she?" Siri asked. "I'm just watching her hands and eyes. That makes it all worth it."

Isabelle's parents, even though they had so much to say to each other and were absolutely exhausted, just couldn't stop watching her at that moment. This lasted until Siri's mother came in to see the baby.

"I know this is family time," she said. "But I just couldn't resist the chance to see my new granddaughter."

"You're family," said Siri. "And you have to meet Isabelle." Siri held the baby to her, but almost felt sad when her mother took Isabelle. She couldn't stand her baby to be out of her arms for even a little while. This protectiveness of the baby had certainly happened quickly.

"I'll have her back to you in a minute," said her mother, who could sense that. "She's perfect, honey. She's got your long eyelashes. And you do realize the head shape will quickly get to normal."

"Oh yes," said Siri. "That's what the medic said."

The three adults just about cooed over Isabelle, who didn't seem to mind being held by her grandmother, for a minute. Siri was close enough she could count that there were ten fingers and ten toes. Not to mention she couldn't mention the three of them having a closer moment than bonding over the baby. It felt great to know she wasn't alone with Isabelle, as she'd never even changed a diaper in her life.

And the next day they were discharged from the med center and were sent home. That was, of course, when the real work of having a baby at home started. Being so used to being successful on missions, Obi-Wan and Siri realized that they had a lot to learn and were glad that they were normally high energy people. They found that they had six weeks off missions to feed Isabelle every four hours and keep her entertained and happy in general. Luckily Isabelle turned out to be a relatively easy baby who smiled and gurgled often. They were even able to give her a bath without too much screaming. She just had trouble sleeping through the night, so Obi-Wan and Siri had to take turns getting up to feed and rock her.

This lasted several nearly sleepless nights, and then they decided that Isabelle should sleep in the bed to keep her parents from having to get up as long in the night. The first night this happened, Obi-Wan and Siri were on either side of her watching her sleep.

"I just can't get over her cute little snores," said Obi-Wan. "It's really such a cute sound."

"I can't get over her gurgles," said Siri. "And I think she has your nose."

"I think you're right, and she had your eyelashes." Siri knew that Obi-Wan liked her long eyelashes.

"That's what my mother said." Siri had been so exhausted at that point she was proud that she could remember what her mother had said in the med center.

"And she'd absolutely right." Obi-Wan was just beaming at the two of them. It was such a perfect family moment that Siri never wanted to end, as much as she knew it would.

They just laid there for a minute when Siri's comm buzzed. Siri got out of bed carefully, so as not to wake the baby, and answered it.

"Is this Siri Tachi?" a voice asked that sent chills down Siri's spine. Unless she was absolutely mistaken, it was Jenna Zan Arbor.

"Yes, it is, but how did you get this frequency," Siri almost hissed into the comm. How dare that woman ruin such a perfectly wonderful family moment. It occurred to her that for some reason, Zan Arbor was trying to get her to go after her. She must have some purpose or trap in mind.

"Never mind how I found you, I just wanted to let you know what my plans are," Zan Arbor said.

"Assuming I believe you, what are your great plans?" Siri asked, turning to the bedroom to see if Obi-Wan had noticed anything wrong.

"I plan on destroying the K-Directorate offices for getting in the way of my plans too many times," Zan Arbor replied. Her voice was even icier than Siri remembered, and she had to think quickly to keep up with what she was hearing.

When she processed what she was hearing, Siri was shocked both at what Zan Arbor was supposedly about to do as well as that she would say anything to Siri about this beforehand. "And why are you telling me this?"

"Because I know you won't be able to resist trying to stop me," she answered. "I want to get you out of the Temple."

This was quite the dilemma that Siri wasn't sure she had a lot of time to solve. On one hand, she wasn't interested in following Zan Arbor's instructions or playing into any possible trap of hers. On the other, she couldn't just let the K-Directorate offices be destroyed. Not only did she not like the idea of people in general losing their lives or livelihoods, her father's life could be potentially at risk. She'd risk any trap of Zan Arbor's to not let that happen, especially as she was capable of taking care of herself.

"If you don't want the K-Directorate offices to be destroyed," Zan Arbor was saying, "Meet me next week at a time and location I'll give you near their building."

"Why should I bother?" Siri asked, already knowing the answer.

"Because I'm up for a fight with a Jedi. You win, I won't destroy anything. You lose, and K-Directorate is no more."

"Send me the info later," said Siri. "I'll meet you if you aren't back in prison by that point, but I've got to get back to my family now." Siri turned off the comm at that point and went back to Obi-Wan.

"How do you have any idea of what she's actually planning?" asked Obi-Wan. "For all we know, K-Directorate is in no danger and you're being led into a trap. She probably is using you to get revenge on me." Siri had to admit that this made a certain amount of sense. Still, she couldn't let her father be in danger if there was anything she could do about it.

"I can't just ignore the comm. What if my father is in the building when it explodes?"

"So tell him you got the comm," Obi-Wan said. "Let him and K-Directorate decide what they want to do about it."

Siri made a mental note to comm Simon in the morning and tell him exactly what Jenna Zan Arbor had told her. They deserved to know what could very possibly be coming in the next week.

"Oh, I'm doing that for sure tomorrow," Siri told Obi-Wan. "But what if K-Directorate can't find Zan Arbor in time? I have to go, even if it is a trap. It's such a perfect opportunity to send her back to prison."

"You have a new baby and you want to take off so soon after that woman?"

"It's not that I want to, it's that I couldn't live with myself if I don't do anything and it turns out that I could. You do realize that my father's life could be at stake because of her latest insane scheme?"

"Yes, I know." Obi-Wan sighed. "And I know your conscience will never rest until you get to the bottom of this. It's just that I wonder how Jenna Zan Arbor is sure enough about that to comm you."

"Jedi reputation?" Siri asked.

"I suppose," Obi-Wan said. "Hopefully K-Directorate can take care of this before we have to get involved though. Do you think you can sleep after that interruption?" Obviously that hadn't been getting enough sleep as it was, and it was almost starting to worry them.

"I'm tired enough that I just might." Siri knew that she had to try as it wouldn't be too many hours until Isabelle woke up.

After that, all three of them went into a restless sleep until Isabelle woke up at about 0400. While feeding and rocking her, Siri's main regret was that Simon would be sure to be asleep at that hour, so she wouldn't be able to comm him until the morning. Naturally she hadn't been able to get the strange threatening comm out of her mind. She had a dream of fighting Zan Arbor near the K-Directorate buildings when she was woken up by Isabelle. Siri had woken up before she found out who won, but she remembered that Zan Arbor had a lightsaber. This was strange as Siri didn't see how she could have possibly obtained one in waking life.

Going back to sleep, she hoped that she'd be able to continue that dream and would be able to beat Zan Arbor. In any case, Zan Arbor had to know that K-Directorate would be on her in the morning. What was her plan for avoiding them?


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: Don't take the dream too literally. It does mean something though.

Chapter 21

The first thing that Siri did in the morning, of course, was to call Simon. He sounded absolutely shocked to hear that Zan Arbor had commed Siri.

"How did she even get your frequency?" he asked. "And what could she possibly have to say to you?"

"As for the first part, I have no idea how she got my frequency. As for the second part, she says she plans on destroying the K-Directorate compound."

That certainly got Simon's attention, as Siri was certain that it would. "Sounds like one of her plots. Be careful if you try to stop her. It's probably a trap."

"That's what Obi-Wan thought. But I can't turn down the chance to catch Zan Arbor, even if she does mean to set a trap for me."

"You just had a baby, Siri, and it's the K-Directorate compound she's threatening, not the Temple. Please, let me try and find her first."

"And how are you going to do that?" Siri asked. She was sure that Zan Arbor, wherever she was, was on the run.

"We have our ways of finding people. We're a spy agency after all." And Simon was probably right. If he could find Zan Arbor and have her arrested before Siri's meeting with her the next week, it would save Siri a lot of trouble and danger. And the last thing she wanted to do was leave Isabelle when she was so young. But she just had to save her father and catch Zan Arbor if she had to and possibly could, Isabelle or no Isabelle.

"If you find her before next standard week, that would be great. That's when I'm supposed to be meeting with her." Somehow Siri had a feeling they wouldn't be able to find her, but it was worth a try.

"I'll do my best to catch her and we'll be on full security here. And don't you worry about me going after her. This is what I do for a living, same as you. You concentrate on Isabelle and Obi-Wan." Simon used the voice she remembered from early childhood when he was trying to get her to do something.

"I will, I promise. But you better promise to tell me if K-Directorate has no leads." Siri had a feeling she wouldn't be hearing anything if they couldn't find Zan Arbor as Simon and K-Directorate wouldn't want to admit they needed help.

"I'll let you know if we need help. Just don't fall into any trap."

"I won't if I can help it." How did Simon think he was helping with that comment? Did he think Siri wanted to fall into a trap? But Siri didn't say this as she knew she was only trying to help.

"I know you won't. I'll get back to you later with what K-Directorate knows about this." And with that, they ended the conversation.

After a few days, though, she hadn't heard anything back. She thought about Zan Arbor when she was taking care of Isabelle. While she didn't want to face her exactly, there was the excitement that Siri craved, was used to in her missions, and couldn't exactly find in feedings and changing diapers. This must be what Zan Arbor was counting on to lead her into her trap.

But then she got a comm from Simon. "Sorry it's taken me a few days to get back to you, but I wanted to be sure that I had something to tell you. The truth is, Jenna Zan Arbor seems to have disappeared from the Galaxy."

"Somehow I don't think we're that lucky." Siri was sure that she was still out there somewhere.

"I don't think so either. But we've got nothing to go on until she contacts you. Let me know the moment that she does."

"I will." That would only help both of them, after all.

"And then K-Directorate will try and track where the transmission is coming from. Try and let me know she's commed you and keep her on as long as you can."

Siri knew that Simon would be able to come up with a plan. At least this sounded like it just might have a chance of working. She hated just waiting for Zan Arbor to call with plans to lead her into some sort of trap, which was after all what she'd been doing.

And surely enough, not long after she'd gotten off the comm with Simon, Jenna Zan Arbor commed again.

"So, are you willing to meet me?" Zan Arbor asked in her now familiar, icy voice.

"Yes, if it's going to save K-Directorate," Siri answered, trying to sound braver than she felt. She tried to keep her hands out of the holo while she turned on the other comm and began to punch in Simon's frequency.

"Very good. Then meet me near the K-Directorate compound on the first day of the next standard week at 0900 hours to stop me."  
>"I'll be there," said Siri, trying to ignore how strange and dangerous this all was. While trying to decide what to say next, she finished typing the comm number for Simon, careful to keep right out of sight of Zan Arbor. "But what do you plan to do when I get there?"<p>

"Let you try and stop me," Zan Arbor said in a tone that Siri knew was a dare. A dare that was starting to give her a headache at the moment. She wondered how long it would take her father to get a lock on Zan Arbor's location.

"There's no way you're going to be able to pull this one off," said Siri, with more bravado than she actually felt. She wasn't sure whether she was trying to convince herself or Zan Arbor that the explosion or whatever Zan Arbor had planned wouldn't happen.

"I'm not so sure. I've gotten away with quite a bit under the radar of you Jedi." And Siri actually believed this one, which was the most frustrating part.

Suddenly she heard a beeping noise from the comm, which she thought meant that Simon and K-Directorate had tracked Zan Arbor's location. She now couldn't get off the comm with Zan Arbor fast enough.

"I'll see you then," Siri told her. She then hung up the comm as she was sure she had gotten all she was going to get out of that conversation. She then couldn't comm her father fast enough to see what he had to say.

"We've located her," said Simon. "And she didn't know we were tracking her comm?"

"Not as far as I know," said Siri. "I was careful to keep that I was punching in a frequency out of sight."

"Great," said Simon. "Some people from K-Directorate are off to find her as we speak."

"Do they know who they're dealing with?" asked Siri, who was trying not to sound discouraged. She somehow doubted that they'd be able to catch her before the meeting time.

"They know as much as I do, which is more than I want to know," said Simon. Siri could tell that Simon was getting just as tired of trying to catch Zan Arbor as Siri was.

"That's great. Just let me know in a day or two how that's coming along."

"Will do. Now, you focus on Isabelle. She needs her mama. Promise?"

Siri smiled. "I promise, Dad."

And after Siri got off the comm with Simon, she certainly did check on Isabelle. She was somehow getting more used to taking care of her than she'd thought possible. At the moment, she seemed to be hungry, so Siri went to get a bottle out of their cooling unit.

While she was doing that, Obi-Wan came in after training with Anakin. Siri knew that Anakin was getting close to taking his trials, and hoped the pair could work together after he was knighted. That was just one of the thoughts in her head. Her mind was going a thousand kilometers an hour, and she started speaking just about that quickly.

"Zan Arbor called, and she wants to meet me on the first day of next standard week, but Simon and K-Directorate have a trace on her," she managed to get out.

"I hope they're able to find her using that trace. I think we're all more than ready to never hear from her again."

"Me too. Then I wouldn't have to worry about leaving the two of you." This whole trap was getting beyond exhausting and irritating.

"Well, I suppose there's nothing we can do but wait," said Obi-Wan calmly.

"How can you be so calm during waiting? I find that to be the worst part."

"Jedi training."

"Can't be just that. I had the same training you did, and I'm not being nearly as calm."

"We just balance each other well, and after all, you're the one she's after."

After that, they changed the subject as they both needed a change of pace. Obi-Wan filled her in on how Anakin was doing, and he certainly was going to recommend him for the Trials once Zan Arbor was taken care of. Siri shared some of what she and Isabelle had been doing all day, as Obi-Wan could never hear enough about that. They were both worried that they'd miss one of her milestones being such busy Jedi.

But the next day, Simon commed again. She could tell just by the look on his face that it wasn't god news. "We haven't found her Siri, so it looks like you may have to meet her after all. I'm sorry."

Siri nodded solemnly. "It's probably because she was expecting this. It's all right, I'm up to facing her again."

"You're getting K-Directorate backup. I insist."

"Thanks so much, Dad. I know you tried."

After she turned off the comm, this time she was determined. This would be the last time Zan Arbor would be able to threaten her or anyone in her family.


	22. Chapter 22

A/N Jedi-Kay Kenobi: Glad I helped you get into Jedi mode – isn't it fun? And Zan Arbor will eventually be caught, but things will get worse before they get better.

Chapter 22

After another few days went by with no word from K-Directorate, Siri knew that she had to leave Isabelle with Obi-Wan and her mother and face Zan Arbor. So she packed up her lightsaber and blaster, which she still had left over from her undercover missions. She had a feeling she might need it for this meeting, even though it wasn't undercover.

On the way there, she found herself increasingly nervous in a non-Jedi like way. After all, she still wasn't entirely sure why Zan Arbor had told her about her plans, or even if they were actual plans at all. It occurred to her that Zan Arbor might not be planning to destroy the K-Directorate compound, but just trying to get her attention. She didn't think Zan Arbor could do anything to her with her Jedi training, but that was hard to be completely sure. She must have something in mind, for Siri had a feeling Zan Arbor hadn't commed her just to make the bombing harder and to make Siri miserable. No, there was a specific purpose to this one.

Sure enough, Zan Arbor was at the appointed place. Siri would have actually enjoyed the peaceful clearing if she'd come there for peaceful purposes. Instead, she tried to see what she could sense – which was glee from Zan Arbor that Siri had actually bothered to come. However, Siri couldn't see anything on her but her blaster in its usual location – and a bomb on the ground near Zan Arbor.

"So," started Zan Arbor. "You actually came. I'm impressed."

"And what exactly did you bring me here for?"asked Siri, starting to get frustrated with these games that Zan Arbor was playing. "You certainly don't need me to set off a bomb."

"No, I don't, but it's more exciting with you trying to stop me."

Siri could sense, even if she wouldn't have known anyway, that this wasn't the main reason Zan Arbor wanted her to be there. There was something else she had planned that had nothing to do with a bomb.

Whether the bomb was still going off, however, Siri had no idea. So she was going to keep on down this path until she was sure that the compound was safe. She didn't, however, want to get close enough to hear the bomb ticking.

"Is the bomb set to go off?" she asked. If it wasn't, all she had to do was keep Zan Arbor from setting it off and the compound would be fine.

"Get close enough to tell if you can hear anything," Zan Arbor replied.

"How do I know you're not going to shoot me if you do?" Siri asked, hating that she was having to ask so many questions in a row. So that was how this was going to be in this game of Zan Arbor's.

Zan Arbor put her blaster down. "If you just check, I promise not to do anything this minute."

So Siri, figuring that she was in danger from that bomb if it blew even if she didn't come closer, got just close enough to tell if she could hear anything. She kept one eye on the bomb and the other on Zan Arbor.

Sure enough, it was making an awful beeping sound. So Zan Arbor was serious about the bomb and wasn't just bluffing.

Siri stepped back and asked Zan Arbor "So what am I supposed to do to stop this?" Not only was she still not sure exactly what Zan Arbor wanted, she had never had to disable a bomb before. Hopefully K-Directorate knew how to disable this bomb as she certainly wasn't trusting Zan Arbor's instructions on that one. If only she could get the backup to come in, arrest Zan Arbor, and disable the bomb, she could go home. Now how to make that happen?

Suddenly, Zan Arbor picked up her blaster. Siri turned her full attention to that and her lightsaber came out. "I asked you to come here so that I could get some of your DNA," Zan Arbor explained.

"Project Helix is back with K-Directorate," Siri said, realizing what this was actually all about. "You're not going to be able to use it if you blow up the compound where it's being held."

"That's not necessarily true. Are you absolutely sure that they're the only ones who have it?"

Siri was upset to realize that she wasn't completely sure about that. For all she knew, more of Project Helix could have been made before it was recovered from Krayn. And if it was, it made sense why Zan Arbor would go through so much trouble to bring her there. She wanted to be a duplicate of Siri or have someone be a duplicate of her. It was enough to make her sick to her stomach.

But before she could say anything about this realization, Zan Arbor started shooting at her. For a minute, Siri had to use all her concentration to block the bullets. The only good thing was that she could sense that the sound of the bullets had alerted the backup team that it was time to come in. They were coming in as quickly as they could.

Siri just hoped that they would get there before she was shot and Zan Arbor made off with the blood. She was starting to tire of blocking all the blaster bolts and was starting to be afraid that she'd get hit any minute.

Sure enough, one of the bullets got through and she was shot in the arm. Suddenly the shooting stopped and Zan Arbor gave her a look that Siri could swear would lead to an evil laugh. Although her arm hurt enough to give a gasp, at least she knew she'd be able to recover from that type of injury.

Zan Arbor ran over with a vial Siri realized she'd had on her just for this purpose. Siri took her blaster out with her good arm and held it to Zan Arbor to keep her from getting too close to the injury. Zan Arbor didn't seem to mind, and Siri realized that there was blood on the grass. While keeping Zan Arbor away from her, she got a drop of Siri's blood from one of the blades.

That was exactly when the backup team, including Simon, arrived. "That bomb's going to go off," she called to them. Simon came over to her while the rest of the backup team went to disarm the bomb.

"Do they know how to disarm that thing?" Siri asked her father.

"That's no problem," Simon said. "It'll be off in no time. I'm more worried about your arm."

"She did this just because she wanted my blood," said Siri. "And I'm sure it's for Project Helix."

Simon looked around for Zan Arbor, but she was already gone while everyone was distracted with the bomb and Siri's hurt arm. Simon began to look sick.

"I'm so sorry. We've got to find her before she can duplicate you."

"And just how are we going to do that?"asked Siri. "I'm getting incredibly sick and tired of going after her. This is far from the first time she's caused problems."

"It's what we do best," answered Simon. "And now we can charge her with assault for shooting you."

"If we can get her into court." Siri wasn't satisfied. "But we need a plan to get her there now. I can't believe I didn't realize until too late what she was up to."

"You didn't realize she had Project Helix," said Simon, who was starting to bandage her arm. "It's not your fault. You were trying to help us."

"And now I've got to go home and worry about someone running around and pretending to be me." That was starting to sink in Siri's mind. "Who knows what they might try and do?"

"Try not to worry about that." Simon's attempts to reassure her we're helping at all. "You're right about one thing though. Now that we're all right, you need to get back to Obi-Wan and Isabelle."

"I certainly do, but you let me know the instant you have any leads on Zan Arbor."

"Will do. And finding her is our top priority now." And after Zan Arbor had tried to bomb them and had her hands on Project Helix, Siri certainly believed that.

And with that, there was nothing she could do but say good-bye to Simon and head back to the Temple. She'd get the Temple medic to take a look at her arm and at least get a reunion with her family.

When she returned to the Temple, the good news she got from the medic was that her arm was going to be fine and all she had to do was give the injury time to heal. Obi-Wan wasn't thrilled with her for leaving, though, as he told her when she got back to her quarters.

"I'm so sorry this happened, but we need to make a resolution to never fall into some criminal's trap again."

"It's true," Siri had to admit. "Next time I'm letting K-Directorate take care of this and staying with my family."

"Well, both of us are happy to have you back." Sure enough, Isabelle was smiling.

"I'm happy to be back." And of course she really was, even though it would be hard to get Zan Arbor off her mind.

"And as long as you stay here, you don't have to worry about running into any duplicates. They wouldn't dare come here as we'd sense the difference immediately."

"We still have to find the duplicate though." Siri didn't even want to contemplate how bizarre it would be to run into this person. The whole trap was getting stranger and stranger.

"But I don't see how we can tonight," said Obi-Wan. "Let's not talk about it until we get news. I have a feeling we will soon."

And sure enough, he was right.


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: Yes, Siri should have listened to her level-headed Jedi fiancé. But what would the fun have been in that?

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Oh, and I'm just about out of updates I can do from the laptop. Will be home late on the 26th though.

Chapter 23

A few days after Siri arrived back at the Temple, sure enough, there was a comm from Simon. Siri wasn't exactly surprised, but excited that he might have some news about what Zan Arbor was up to.

"You didn't just comm me, did you?" he asked, looking absolutely in shock.

"No, I didn't. Have you found anything?" Siri had a feeling that he had. And why did he think she just commed him?

"I just got a comm from someone who looked just like you. She was asking some questions about K-Directorate missions, so I got suspicious and traced it."

Siri felt sick to her stomach. So there had apparently been enough blood on the grass to use for Project Helix. Now there was some double of her running around out there in the Galaxy.

"No, it definitely wasn't me. Where did you trace it to?" Somebody was going to have to take off there and find this person immediately.

"The old Covenant compound. Apparently Zan Arbor is still keeping things there even though there's no official Covenant missions anymore."

Now that the shock was wearing off, Siri was becoming angry. What made someone think they could pretend to be her and ask her father questions she wouldn't ask?

A thought occurred to Siri – had this woman really planned on getting information, or was she just informing Siri and her father of her existence? "You didn't give her any good information, did you?" asked Siri.

"Not at all. I pretended to think she was really you, but gave her bad information." Simon now sounded proud of himself.

Siri was glad that Simon hadn't believed the duplicate and at least the Covenant hadn't learned anything about K-Directorate missions through that little ploy. But someone still needed to get the double out of the way so she couldn't do whatever she was planning to do as Siri.

Not to mention that would really help with Siri's sanity. She was probably about to have evil twin nightmares or some such thing.

"So who's going after her?" Siri asked.

"We don't even know if she'd be in the Covenant compound by the time we get there." Simon said. "We really should trap her into coming to us by making her think I believe her."

"Think she'll be comming you again soon?" asked Siri.

"I assume so. She seems interested in what K-Directorate is up to, and she must know I'm really the only one here you talk to."

"And when she finds out that you've been lying to her?" Siri had a feeling when that happened they'd never see her again. She'd escape somewhere in the Galaxy and nobody would know that she was a double of a Jedi. That is, until she was able to cause problems again, and they'd have to drop everything and go after her. Obviously not a cycle to be repeated if at all possible.

"Doubtful that she could have found out that she'd getting bad information so fast. No, I just gave her enough to get her interested in finding out more, and then I told her I was busy. When she comms again I'll set up meeting place, claiming I'd like to have some father-daughter time or something like that."

"That's a good idea." Siri was glad that Simon was on top of this. "And what do we do then?"

"Then I'll have you and the K-Directorate backup team be there, and we an arrest her and figure out who she is and what she wants."

Siri didn't think that was a bad idea. They could always come up with more details as the time grew closer.

"I like the idea. Make sure you tell me when the meet is set up. It doesn't matter how busy I am here, this is now personal." They hung up the comm shortly after that.

While waiting for Simon to comm her back, Siri actually started wedding planning. She needed a distraction from worrying about what the double was doing. But more importantly, she was thinking it was about time that she and Obi-Wan make it official now that they had been together for years, wanted to be together for many more, and had a baby together. They had finally picked a place and Siri was thinking she had lost just enough baby weight to begin dress shopping. They were making guest lists, meeting with caterers, and trying to figure out just how much this was going to cost. They thought they had just about enough with their savings and with what Adi was willing to contribute as long as they didn't go overboard.

And that was what led to a meeting with the wedding planner being interrupted by another comm from Simon. Siri let Obi-Wan keep talking to the planner and promised to keep the conversation short. Simon sounded excited this time, which must mean that he had some good news on catching the double.

"She commed back, all right. I told her if she was so interested in the running of K-Directorate we really must meet in person so there wouldn't be a chance of someone listening in on the frequency."

Siri nodded. "Did she seem to believe that?"

"Yes, I think so. In any case, I was able to come up with a time and place fairly easily."

Siri was glad to hear that. Even if the double was only pretending to believe Simon, at least hopefully she'd be at the meeting. She had a feeling all they needed to do was trap her and this whole trap of Zan Arbor's would be finally over.

Simon filled her on the time and place of the meet, and then Siri knew that she had to be there. Maybe her Jedi skills could catch this woman – Siri hated to think of her as a double – when K-Directorate couldn't. There would be no escaping this time, especially as there couldn't be a bomb without making it obvious that she wasn't Siri at all. Part of Siri was still angry that such a stupid ploy had let Zan Arbor escape, even though she knew very well that anger wasn't Jedi-like. Sometimes these things couldn't be helped.

It was shortly after that she let Simon know that the wedding planner was still there.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your meeting," he said. "And I really am excited to walk my only daughter down the aisle." Siri believed him and knew he was just thrilled to be included as he hasn't been there while Siri was growing up.

"I'm counting on it," Siri said. "Especially as we've been talking more lately." Sir realized at that moment just how grateful she was for that.

"But now you get back to Obi-Wan and the wedding planner," Simon said. "I'll do what I can to get this woman on my end." Siri knew that he'd do his best, and they hung up the comm after that.

Siri went back to the meeting with the wedding planner and tried to concentrate on guest favors and wedding programs. She was finding that some parts of this wedding planning were more fun than others. At least even the boring parts were a distraction from some double running around out there pretending to be her.

Once the wedding planner had left, Siri told Obi-Wan what Simon had told her over the comm.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "This must be so bizarre for you."

"It is." Siri nodded but tried not to seem too upset or frightened in front of Obi-Wan. "But at least we know there was enough blood on the grass for them to be able to do this. I really should have shot her when I had the chance."

"But she'd stopped shooting at you, so it wouldn't have been self-defense." Obi-Wan was somehow always able to stay calm in these situations. It was one of the many things she loved about him.

"True enough, and that's why I didn't do it." So she was supposed to be proud that she had at least that amount of self-control? It didn't seem like much, especially for a Jedi.

"And let me guess, you're determined to go running off after this double until she's in jail and you've figured out who she is and what she wants." Obi-Wan was absolutely right, even if she didn't want to disappoint him by putting herself in danger again.

"You guessed right. But I promise I won't walk into a trap again." Siri was determined not to do exactly what Zan Arbor wanted again.

"I should hope not, and I know you'll do your best to catch this double without any harm to yourself."

"I will, and I'll be the best Jedi possible while doing it. This isn't just about getting revenge; it could be Galactic security at risk."

"Theoretically. Are you sure you can't let K-Directorate take care of this?"

"It's me they've doubled. Besides, I don't want to leave them alone when they might need a Jedi to bring her in." A thought occurred to Siri. "Do we think that she has my midicholorian count?"

"Midichlorians are in the DNA, so probably yes." That was what Siri thought as well.

"So she might try and use the Force. Another reason that I should be there."

"Well, I've never been able to stop you when you got determined to do something. Just come home safely to me and Isabelle." Siri knew that Obi-Wan was just trying to help, but he knew that she'd do her best without his telling her to do so.

"I think I can easily promise that." The two of them kissed for what felt like the first time in a long time. "Let's go find Isabelle and have a family moment to make up for the one Zan Arbor interrupted." Siri felt terrible about not being able to spend enough time with her baby, and Obi-Wan sounded more than agreeable to that, so off they went, more relaxed than they had been in a while.


	24. Chapter 24

A/N: Nobody is up yet here, so I can update this. Merry Christmas to all my readers! And Jedi Kay-Kenobi: I suppose Zan Arbor does now have Siri's midichlorian count, but I hadn't thought of that (-: Oh, and this is the last I can update until I get home late tomorrow Pacific Time.

Chapter 24

The next day, Simon commed Siri, sounding excited.

"I've got an idea," he started. "Why don't we take advantage of this and see what you can learn from someone in the Covenant ." They decided on Granta Omega, who was a being who was an important part of the Covenant who had been caught in the recent raid.

"And how am I supposed to do that?" asked Siri. "Besides, does he even have any good information from prison?" Siri wasn't interested in dealing with the members who had been caught – she just wanted Zan Arbor to stop impersonating her.

"So pessimistic," said Simon. "You never know what he might know about Zan Arbor. And this could be just about our only opportunity to just visit and talk to him."

Siri realized at that moment what her father was talking about. "You mean pretend to be Zan Arbor, visit the prison, and see what I can find out?"

"That's exactly what I mean." This was either one of Simon's best ideas or the worst of his ideas. While it was certainly a rare opportunity they had, Siri wasn't sure if the risk of Granta Omega finding out was worth it. Then again, if he did tell her something good, it was possible that she could have more Covenant members in jail for life. Not having to worry about them ever again unless they escaped was certainly tempting.

"I'll do it," Siri said, hoping that going all the way to the prison would be worth it. "What do you think that he knows that he might tell me?"

"How much of Project Helix is left." Naturally, K-Directorate would want to know that. And it was true that once it was gone, Siri didn't think Zan Arbor had the ability to make more. It was hard to be absolutely certain of that though.

"Would it be absolutely gone after Zan Arbor uses it up, or can she make more?"

Simon shook his head. "No, she'd need access to the lab here. If the Covenant lab was still in full order, maybe she could, but that lab was dismantled in the raid."

That was a relief at least. Maybe soon "K-Directorate's best invention" would stop haunting her life and taking away from her family time.

"Luckily Obi-Wan should be here until at least next standard week, so I can leave Isabelle with him." Siri was glad she didn't have to depend on her busy mother for babysitting yet again.

"That's great," Simon said. "Why don't you take off as soon as possible so you can meet Granta Omega before I'm supposed to meet Zan Arbor."

"I'll have to tell Obi-Wan and check with the Council, but I think that I can." Siri replied. She was finding herself getting more and more excited about the idea. Maybe her father was right – they should take advantage of this strange situation and see if Granta Omega would talk to her. She'd just have to remember not to appear to be prying, but she'd had practice with that on other missions.

"That's great. Talk to you soon." Then Siri disconnected the comm and went to find Obi-Wan.

"I remember Granta Omega," Obi-Wan said after she'd explained the plan. "The Covenant used him for both his brains and his strength, but mainly for his strength. You probably could get him to tell you something if you're careful."

"I couldn't hope for better than that," Siri said. "It's not like the Covenant would take on an idiot."

"That's right," said Obi-Wan. "Which is how they've been able to cause us so many problems."

Siri sighed as she'd thought over all these problems. "So you're all right with my going?" She didn't want a disagreement with him over that and knew she already wasn't spending enough time with him and Isabelle.

"I don't want to interfere with this unique situation," Obi-Wan said. "And I feel better that Granta Omega is in prison. Even if he realizes the truth, it's not like he can do anything to you."

"Thanks, honey," Siri said. "I'll somehow make up this time apart from you and Isabelle."

"You don't have to," said Obi-Wan. "It's our life and our job. It's not your fault that it doesn't end and you can't resist the opportunity to catch criminals."

"No," Siri said. "I suppose I can't."

"Just come back safely."

"I will," said Siri, trying to sound more confident than she actually was.

And with that, Siri left to pack for her trip to the prison. She put just about her only non-Jedi outfit in the bag –and of course her blaster, even though those weren't allowed in the prison. She then said good-bye to Obi-Wan and Isabelle and promised him that she'd be back to see them before she left for the K-Directorate compound.

When she got to the prison, she had to shudder at what she could sense from the inside. All the dark thoughts from locked-up criminals were overwhelming. She had to take a deep breath to be able to go inside and talk to the guard.

"What can I do for you?" he asked after the door had swooshed behind her.

"I'm here on Jedi business to see Granta Omega," she told the guard, giving him her ID.

"Right this way," the guard told her. Siri had a feeling he thought she'd use the Jedi Mind Trick on him if he didn't take her to Granta Omega right away. She tried walking and carrying herself like she'd seen Zan Arbor do, although she wasn't sure exactly how successful she was being.

After a minute, she found herself in the visiting area. "If you'll wait here, I'll get Granta Omega to come out on the other side of that window." Sure enough, there was a chair on the other side of it. "Then you put on these headphones to be able to talk to each other."

"That's what I thought," said Siri, sitting down on the visitor's chair.

The guard couldn't leave fast enough. But sure enough, he did appear with Granta Omega after a minute. Omega seemed surprised, but not in a bad way, to see her. He sat down as fast as he could in chains and put the headphones on.

"They don't monitor the conversations here," Granta Omega said. "It can't be used as evidence."

"I'm glad we can speak freely," Siri said.

"So," he said, "you were able to do it." Siri couldn't quite tell whether he thought this was good or bad.

"Yes," she answered, trying to keep her voice as icy as possible. "I took her blood when she stupidly showed up to stop the bomb."

"And how is the quest to learn more about K-Directorate coming along?" Siri supposed she'd have to play along for a minute and then she'd get the chance to ask the questions.

"I'm meeting with Simon Tachi on the first day of next standard week." As he was in prison and Zan Arbor obviously knew, it couldn't hurt to give him some actual information.

"Do you really think you can fool him in person?" So Granta Omega wasn't as much of an underling as Siri had thought.

"I suppose so. I've seen her enough since she was pretending to be Valadon to trap me to pretend to be her."

"Hope you're right, or K-Directorate will have your head."

Siri scowled. "Can we change the subject?"

"Fine. I'm sure you don't want to think about that possibility."

"I can blast my way out, you know. I'm quite good at disappearing after that." Sir was proud of the amount of cockiness that came out.

"I suppose you are. But what did you come here to talk to me about?" Siri hoped that she wasn't getting Granta Omega annoyed.

"I want to use Project Helix again. It's worked so well for me so far." If it turned out that Zan Arbor had more, she would suggest using Omega as a subject. If not, she would ask about the K-Directorate compound's plans.

"So that's why you're meeting with Simon, even though it's risky. You want to break into K-Directorate's labs."

That answered the question about whether Zan Arbor had more Project Helix. Apparently she didn't, at least as far as Granta Omega knew. But the sigh of relief would have to wait just a little while longer, just until she was out of the prison and on her way home.

"That's exactly what I plan on," Siri said, careful to continue keeping the ice in her voice. "And I'm thinking you know where the laboratory is in there."

"The plans for that compound were in the computer that got confiscated," Granta Omega said. "But I remember it's near the back entrance."

"Any little bit helps," said Siri. "I may not have much time to find it."

Granta Omega continued to try and remember where the laboratory was and Siri continued to try and appear interested. Before long, she decided that she should leave before Omega got suspicious.

"I really must leave," Siri said. "But I promise to try and get you out of here when I can."

"Don't forget me," he said. And that was the end of that conversation. Siri contacted the guard, who led her out of the prison and back to her ship. Before long, she was heading back to Obi-Wan and Isabelle, feeling relieved that at least Granta Omega hadn't announced to the entire prison that she was pretending to be Zan Arbor.

Obi-Wan and Isabelle were happy to see her. Obi-Wan was happy that she was back quickly and safely and that the Covenant didn't have more of Project Helix after all. And Siri was sure that Isabelle knew her mother was, for she'd always settle down better when she was there. She promised to herself that after this last meeting, she'd have some good long family time before she missed an important milestone of Isabelle's. Besides, she and Obi-Wan hadn't had nearly enough couple time recently.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Siri had been home with her family too short a time when she had to leave again to meet with her father and talk about what they were going to do to have Zan Arbor arrested. Luckily, when she got there she found that he had a plan.

"You hide in the next room," said Simon. "It's not soundproof, so you can hear us. When we're finished, I'm having K-Directorate agents come in an arrest her. You come in then so that at least we have a lightsaber if we need one."

"And nothing's going to let her escape?" Siri asked. She was getting increasingly tired of that happening and was becoming worried that it would again.

"Once everyone is in, we can lock all the doors," said Simon. "No, she's not escaping again. And everyone's been warned that she tries distractions."

"That's great," said Siri, knowing that would have to satisfy her. "And what are you two going to talk about?"

"We'll see what she says. I'm not giving her classified information about K-Directorate though." Siri thought that was a smart idea as she had a bad feeling that Zan Arbor would be able to use the information eventually, even if she was arrested that particular day.

Before long, Simon took her into the room he was supposed to meet Zan Arbor in. Sure enough, it was surrounded by doors. It was a bit of an office, with a couple of different computers with desks and chairs.

"This is our meeting room," said Simon. "There's a couple computers in here so we can show our guests the latest work we've done for them. You'll notice they're all turned off now."

"Seems like you've thought of everything," said Siri. "She could turn them on, but she wouldn't have the password."

"Right," Said Simon. "And I'll have her arrested before she can break into the computer. It just looks like we trust her."

Simon then showed Siri the room where she'd be waiting. It was plain white with little in the way of furniture. She'd just have to stand and listen at the door until it was time to break in.

Simon's comm went off at that moment. "Your daughter's here to see you," the voice of the guard at the front entrance said.  
>"May the Force be with you," said Siri. Simon was admittedly looking a little nervous at the bizarreness of the whole situation.<p>

"Thank you," he replied. "I don't think that anyone's said that to me since your mother."

"I'm sure," said Siri, remembering that he hadn't spent much time with Jedi since she was a child.

Simon left then and Siri stood waiting outside the door to hear something. And sure enough, she could sense Zan Arbor and the security guard come in.

"I hope the guard didn't give you a hard time. We don't have many guests here, even children of the people who work here," said Simon.

"Not at all," said Zan Arbor. And Siri recognized the voice from the few times she'd heard it recorded. It was even creepier to hear Zan Arbor use it than she thought it would be. Then Siri heard the guard leave.

"Did you know this isn't the first compound I've been in?" asked Zan Arbor. Siri thought Zan Arbor might mention the Valadon incident in the Covenant compound, but she went in a completely different direction. "But I've never been in the one where my own father works."

"Which is why it's about time you came to visit," said Simon. "I'm just glad you're willing to come in here after we spied on the Jedi."

"That was years ago," said Zan Arbor. "I've forgotten the whole thing, even if my mother hasn't." It would have been something to hear Zan Arbor trying to sound as warm as possible if Siri wasn't concentrating on when she should burst open the door. When was everyone planning on coming in and arresting Zan Arbor?

"But what brings you here today?" asked Simon after a moment. "You didn't have to come to my workplace if you just wanted to talk." Siri was proud of how natural he sounded, like he had no idea who he was really talking to.

"No, I guess not. I was wondering if there was anything going on here I should know about, especially after Project Helix." Siri had enough practice from her undercover missions to know when someone was trying to sound casual, but was desperate to know the answer. And Zan Arbor was desperate for the answer to this.

"Now, you know I'm not supposed to tell anyone who doesn't work here any details of out missions. Not even you, I'm afraid."

"So that would be a no?" Siri knew her father well enough to know that wheedling tone would never get her, much less Zan Arbor, anywhere.

"It would be," answered Simon firmly. "I'm sorry you had to find out about Project Helix in that way, and I'd let you know if you were in danger, but you're not. That's all I can say."

"I understand," said Zan Arbor. "It's just that I was hoping we could work together." Siri was actually impressed by her ever-so-slight pleading, although she hoped she never had to ask for Simon's attention. Oh, the whole situation was still bizarre and Siri had no idea how good Zan Arbor's imitation was of her, but she supposed it was good enough to convince someone who didn't know Siri well.

"And I want to work with you like we have before," said Simon. "But I can't be giving you classified information unless it's on a need-to-know basis."

"I just need to know if my Order is going to be in any danger from anything." Siri became just furious inside at the idea of Zan Arbor calling the Jedi "my Order" when she'd never set foot in the Temple, much less tried to learn the ways of the Force.

"Not as far as I know," said Simon. "And I promise I'd tell you otherwise."

"That's all I needed to know. I understand that I don't work here," said Zan Arbor, but Siri knew that she wasn't done yet. She assumed her father would know that Zan Arbor wouldn't be finished that quickly as well.

"But don't go yet," said Simon."We haven't spent enough time together. Let's just not talk about work." Siri wondered what else they were supposed to talk about, but was glad that Simon actually sounded interested in getting to know her better.

"That's a good idea," said Zan Arbor. "But could I send a message home first? It would be a quick one from this computer."

"Sure," said Simon, managing to not sound too full of anticipation. Sometimes Siri forgot just how good he was at that.

And Siri realized what Simon had planned. When Zan Arbor didn't know the password and realized that one was necessary, she'd ask him what it was. Simon would tell her he couldn't give her the password, and then Siri and the backup from K-Directorate would come in. Zan Arbor would be arrested. And then Siri could head home to her family and not have to worry about Zan Arbor hopefully for the rest of their lives.

Siri could hear the sound of a computer powering up and could sense Simon getting nervous. And Siri realized that she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if anything happened to him after she let him be alone with that criminal mastermind Jenna Zan Arbor.

"What's the password?" asked Zan Arbor after the computer was powered up.

"I can't give it to you," answered Simon without faltering.

"And why not?" asked Zan Arbor, who Siri could sense was feeling more irritation than she was letting on.

"Because I happen to know you're not my daughter and that you're in fact working with the Covenant."

Siri moved her finger towards the button that would open the door when she heard Zan Arbor respond.

"What are you talking about?" asked Zan Arbor, pretending to be shocked.

"You used Project Helix," said Simon. "Siri's right behind that door and the while place is surrounded by my backup team."

That's when Siri pushed the button and managed to get her lightsaber out before the door had swished open.

Until that moment, Siri hadn't realized just how incredible bizarre the situation was. It was like looking into a mirror, except that the face looking back was angry and Siri felt absolutely triumphant at having another chance to stop Zan Arbor.

"I'm not letting you escape again," said Siri, aiming her blaster at her. Zan Arbor became increasingly angry as the other doors opened, all having someone from K-Directorate with a blaster. As Zan Arbor hadn't brought any weapons into the compound due to their using detectors, Siri was sure she was trapped. Zan Arbor wouldn't have any choice but to go with the K-Directorate backup team unless she wanted a suicide fight.

Sure enough, before long she was being taken away by K-Directorate, even though she was shouting that she'd be free again soon enough.

"Think she'll be out soon?" Siri asked her father.

"I hope not," answered Simon. "She'd caused more than enough trouble, for us and potentially for plenty of beings in the Galaxy."

"I hate to run," said Siri. "But I haven't been able to spend enough time with Obi-Wan and Isabelle lately."

"I know you haven't," answered Simon. "And I'm sure you want to tell Obi-Wan all about what happened here today."

"I certainly do," said Siri, breaking into a smile. "He'll be glad to hear that she didn't escape yet again, especially after his work against the Covenant."

"But let me know if there's anything I can do to help," said Simon. "Such as, I want to babysit Isabelle sometime."

"She's hardly been out of the Temple," replied Siri. "But I'll bring her to you when I can. And don't forget to comm me in the meantime."

After that, Siri was back at her quarters before she knew it. "How did it go?" asked Obi-Wan.

"We got her, at least for now," answered Siri. "As it turns out, all that was really needed was to get her trapped and surrounded and then concentrate on her." Siri didn't know what she would have done if it turned out that wasn't all that was needed—but it appeared she'd never need to worry about that.

"I'm glad," said Obi-Wan. "Both that she won't be harassing us, or worse, any longer and that you'll be here more. You know that Isabelle will be walking and talking before we know it."

"I know," said Siri. "But isn't 'they grow up so fast' such a cliché?"

"Yes, it is," said Obi-Wan. "But this one happens to be true. She's already doing so much more than when she was born."

And it was true. When Isabelle was first born she didn't really even seem to focus and needed her neck supported when she was held. Now she was certainly focusing and could support her head. She also certainly recognized her parents and wanted them to take care of her. Her mother called it separation anxiety, which Siri hadn't noticed at first. It was one of the reasons she hated being away from Isabelle.

They went to check on Isabelle at that point. She happened to be awake and reached her little hands towards Siri. She reached into the crib and pulled her out.

"I can't wait until she's old enough to teach things and she's a little more independent," said Siri. "Does that make me sound like a horrible person?"

"No, just not like a baby person."

Isabelle gurgled at that point, and Siri had to smile. "I like that part of babies though. She really does have quite a cute gurgle."

"Doesn't she?" asked Obi-Wan. "And I love it when she smiles at me." Siri supposed that all fathers did, but it was great to hear Obi-Wan say it.

"She does that a lot because you're such a good father," said Siri. And the two of them just soaked in the family moment.

The next morning was another morning she didn't want to get up. Isabelle had fallen asleep long enough for her and Obi-Wan to have some couple time, but then had woken up several times in the night.

"Good morning," she said to Obi-Wan. "Except I didn't realize it was possible for it to be a good morning with me this tired."

"Do you have anything to do today?" he asked in a tone that let Siri know that he had plans for them if she didn't.

"Just some odd jobs this afternoon," she replied. "I've been spending so much time on getting Zan Arbor arrested I've been neglecting my Temple duties as well as you and Isabelle."

"So we have all morning together?" asked Obi-Wan hopefully.

"I'm not going anywhere if you're not going anywhere." And unsurprisingly it turned out that he didn't have anything scheduled.

So they made love again, played with Isabelle, and put the finishing touches on the wedding planning. It all felt so relaxing and normal to Siri after dealing with Zan Arbor. She hadn't realized just how badly she needed this until she got this morning.

As for the wedding planning, they hadn't realized just how many tiny details were involved in one until they counted up everything that needed to be done. There were decorations, the music, the favors, and more. That was why they had hired a wedding planner, but of course they still had to make all the decisions.

She also had plenty of time to play with Isabelle once she woke up from her morning nap. She didn't need any fancy toys, although they had some, but loved being bounced around or just held.

Also, Simon commed. "I wanted to make sure you made it home all right and to thank you for your hard work in catching Zan Arbor," he said. "I didn't want to keep you yesterday as I knew you had to get back to Obi-Wan and Isabelle, but I wanted to make sure you knew that."

"I'd know that even without you telling me," said Siri. "But I'm glad you commed."

"Of course," said Simon. "And I'll keep you updated on what is happening with Zan Arbor."

"Was that as bizarre for you as it was for me?" Siri asked.

"I think so," said Simon. "It's amazing what Project Helix can do. It was like dealing with your evil twin."

"I'm sure it was," said Siri. "At least we don't have to do that again and it's over now."

"It sure is, even if Zan Arbor gets out someday," said a relieved Simon. "But I should let you get back to Obi-Wan and Isabelle."

"I've spent all morning with them," said Siri. "And it's been just wonderful not to have to be preparing for a mission at the same time. We even finished up the wedding planning."

"I'm impressed," said Simon. "So you two are finally ready to get married?"

"We had better be, since we have a date and everything," said Siri. "It's the first day of next month."

"That's good to know so I can tell K-Directorate not to have me do anything that day," said Simon.

"You had better be there," said Siri. "Tell K-Directorate they're going to have to deal with me if they send you on a mission or something." While she was partially kidding, she also knew that she wanted her father to be there. K-Directorate and her mother would just have to survive his being at her wedding.

"No matter what, I'll be there," said Simon. "Now I really should be going though."

That afternoon, her work took her into one of the classrooms used by the younglings. She was working on the computer in the classroom while watching them, trying to decide which one Isabelle would be like in a few years. And interestingly enough, it wasn't one of the girls who caught her attention. It was one of the boys who seemed to know so many of the answers in class as well as was cute and well-behaved. She'd have to ask the teacher for more about him as she knew she'd be looking for a padawan when Isabelle got a little older.

As it turned out, Siri had a chance to talk to the teacher after the younglings left to go to another clan activity.

"I know just which boy you mean," said the teacher. "His name's Feris Olin, and he was brought here as an infant. He's so intelligent and so excited about being a padawan someday."

"Has anyone else asked about him?" asked Siri. "Anyone looking for a padawan, I mean."

"No, not yet." The teacher gave Siri an encouraging nod. "But they say these reactions are common when looking for a padawan. The Knight or Master looks at the younglings and one just stands out. Would you like to meet him?"

"Not yet," said Siri. "I can't take a padawan until Isabelle gets a little older, and I don't want to get his hopes up. I just happened to be working in here today during your class and noticed him."

"Well, the Force still could have drawn you to this classroom," said the teacher. "And I'm sure you want to know more about children now that you have one."

"Yes, I just can't learn enough about them," said Siri. And she found that she meant it now that she was a mother. She wanted to be the best one possible for Isabelle.

When Siri got home that night, she told Obi-Wan what had happened in the classroom.

"The teacher's probably right," said Obi-Wan. "I haven't actually chosen a padawan, but they say that the Force brings the pair together. Maybe your noticing him was a sign that he's supposed to be your padawan." He sounded like he didn't have much doubt.

"So you don't think it's too early?" she asked. "I mean, Ferus is still young and I'm so busy with Isabelle I can't take on a padawan just yet. What if I completely forget about him before I'm ready?"

"Then the Force has another Master in mind for him," answered Obi-Wan. "And the Force will bring you another padawan."

Obi-Wan was absolutely right, and it wasn't like Siri to worry about something that hadn't happened yet, so the two of them got back to family time and Ferus was forgotten about for the time being. As Isabelle was up from her afternoon nap, they put her in front of a children's holofilm that she seemed to like after she was fed.

"How is it that I never noticed when I was younger how overacted some of these are?" Siri asked. "I remember loving this one when I was a youngling."

"I have no idea," said Obi-Wan. "Apparently they think that children won't understand subtlety."

"Apparently not," said Siri. "But it's still cute to be able to watch these again. I can't wait to find out which ones Isabelle likes when she's old enough to tell us." She had so much in mind to share with and teach Isabelle when she was older. It was already enough to get her excited.

"Me too," said Obi-Wan. "And I just hope we don't have to watch our least favorites over and over."

"And read our least favorite stories over and over," said Siri. "But hopefully she'll inherit our taste." After all, sharing DNA and raising her had to count for something, although she had a feeling there were parents out there watching holofilms and reading stories they didn't much care for.

And that night Siri was able to sleep soundly for the first time since the entire Zan Arbor mess had started again. It was good to be home for the time being now that she had a family to take care of.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

A/N: Jedi-Kay Kenobi: I think you'll like this long-coming chapter. It's partially based on my wedding and my cousin Jason's.

On the day of her wedding, Siri was so hyped on adrenaline enough that her body barely noticed that she'd been too excited to sleep much. She was in a gorgeous haze as she met her mother for a pre-wedding breakfast and went to one of the best salons on Coruscant to have her hair and makeup done. Her main request was to have her hair down so she'd look somewhat like herself. She couldn't remember the last time she'd worn a dress, and that was enough of a different look for her wedding day.

Before she knew it, she was off to the gazebo where she was supposed to change into her dress. Her mom was there, and Siri could tell she was thrilled, no matter that she wasn't always so pro-marriage. At least Obi-Wan had been part of the Jedi Order since he was a baby, so she couldn't get away with any pessimistic notions of him being a spy.

"You look gorgeous, Siri," she said. "Are you ready for this?"

"More than ready," Siri beamed. "We should have gotten married a long time ago. I've been sure about him since I was sixteen."

Siri changed into her dress just before Simon arrived and stopped in the doorway. "Is it all right to come in? How's the estrogen level in here?"

"You can come in, Dad," Siri said. As he walked in, she realized that she liked the way her mother was looking at her father. Maybe she never had fallen out of love with him after all.

"Everybody's here," Simon said to her mother. "I'm supposed to tell you that you're supposed to be seated and hold Isabelle."

After her mother left, Simon turned to her. "I can't believe my baby girl is finally getting married. I wish I had better marriage advice for you, but as I think yours is starting on a much better foot than mine did, I really shouldn't offer any."

"That's fine Dad. Obi-Wan and I are doing great without any advice."

"I do have something for you though." Simon pulled a jewelry box out of his pocket and gave it to her. "This was my mother's, and I know she wanted to keep this in the family. Today seemed like the perfect day to give it to you. I hope you wear it and pass it down to Isabelle eventually."

"Thank you Dad," Siri said as she opened the box. It was a ring with a beautiful sapphire stone. Somehow it fit her ring finger perfectly.

"Ready to face everyone out there?" Simon asked. It seemed a bit unreal that she was finally going to walk down the aisle after she and Obi-Wan had been through so much together.

"As ready as I'll ever be." And she meant it.

Before she knew it, she and Simon were walking slowly down the aisle towards a beaming Obi-Wan. She could sense this was as unreal and wonderful for him as well.

After greeting everyone, which included a comment on how special it was "to join two – or in this case three – people", the holy man led them in their vows.

"Obi-Wan, do you take Siri to be your wife? Do you promise to love and cherish her, for better or for worse, as long as both of you shall live?"

"I do." Obi-Wan looked right into her eyes reassuringly as he said it.

"Siri, do you take Obi-Wan to be your husband? Do you promise to love and cherish him, for better or for worse, as long as both of you shall live?"

"I do," Siri said, looking into Obi-Wan's eyes to make sure he knew that she meant it.

As they said their vows to love and cherish each other for the rest of their lives, she somehow wasn't surprised that she didn't falter. She meant to keep her vows for the rest of her life. She'd had entirely too much time to consider them to not be sure that Obi-Wan was the one man for her.

At the reception, she found that she was too happy and excited to eat the wonderfully catered food. However, she was caught up in a sea of congratulations from all their friends and relatives in any case. She tried to soak everything in, and was surprised by how much she could remember from what was said. After all, one piece of advice from the wedding planner was to soak everything in "because the day goes by so fast."

Such as the best man's speech from Anakin. "This would be a great opportunity to embarrass my Master, but I won't. I've known Obi-Wan for most of my life, ever since I was nine, and he's been the father and brother I never had. He's a wonderful man and a great Jedi, and we've been through so much together. And Siri, ever since you two finally got engaged, he's been that much happier and more sure of himself. And it's so great to know that there's another Jedi out there who's willing and able to get him out of that nest of gundarks if that should ever be needed again." Siri smiled but tried very hard not to laugh at her new husband's expense.

And her father had a toast as well. "Even though I don't know Obi-Wan as well as I'd like, I know that he's an honorable man who makes my daughter just about the happiest woman in the Galaxy and she needs someone to come home to after her missions, so I couldn't be more thrilled for them, even if having a daughter old enough to get married makes me feel old. And I want to thank them for allowing me to be involved in their wedding."

And then everyone danced, and Siri made sure that she got a dance with everyone who wanted to dance with her. Simon insisted on a father-daughter dance "as I'm one of those rare men who like to dance but never get a chance." During her first dance with Obi-Wan, she knew how happy and relieved he was that she was finally officially his. "We did it," he told her. "And for our honeymoon, I booked the resort we never got to stay at." So that was where the mystery honeymoon location was. Siri found herself getting even more excited, if that was possible.

"Is there going to be a crash this time?" Siri couldn't help but ask after their last resort attempt.

"There had better not be," he replied. "If there is, I certainly didn't ask anyone to stage it." This was just getting better and better.

"I'm going to pinch myself to make sure this isn't just a dream," she told him.

"I promise it's not, and I'd hate to see you hurt yourself just to prove it."

Before Siri knew it, she and Obi-Wan were on their way to the resort. Except for having to hold her breath as they passed the spot of the previous crash, it went fine. Their speeder had been decorated, so they got plenty of waves and smiles from the speeders surrounding them. Although Siri was used to getting plenty of attention for being a Jedi, she couldn't help but smile at the congratulations, even from strangers.

When they got there, it only took Siri a moment to realize that it was in fact just as beautiful as in the holobrochures she had seen when they were going to go there originally. There were about the only trees on the entire planet, the rooms were large and comfortable, and there was a heated pool that all the guests could use. Even the menus looked wonderful. Siri just knew that she'd miss Isabelle, who was staying with her mother, but was going to have a good time anyway and couldn't stop smiling. After all, it wasn't every day she got to go to one of the most expensive resorts on the planet with her new husband.

The door to their room had barely closed when they had their hands all over each other. Then they proceeded to noticed that light was coming in through the blinds. They managed to separate long enough to close them before heading to the bed.

As hungry as they were for each other's bodies, they managed to take their time and enjoy themselves. By the time they were done, it was dark outside and they were able to curl up next to each other and imagine it was much later than it was.

"I don't feel like going out for dinner," Siri said. "But it seems like we should eat something. I was so busy talking to everyone at the reception I barely had a chance to eat anything."

"I don't feel like that either," Obi-Wan said, who was in fact still lying contentedly on the bed. "Let's order room service."

That sounded like a wonderful idea after they got themselves up and dressed enough to comm the restaurant's frequency and order some dinner including dessert.

The rest of their days there were just as good. It felt relaxing to have absolutely nothing scheduled to do – "I'm sure the Galaxy can survive without us for a week," Obi-Wan told her. They swam, ate wonderful food including a picnic under the trees, watched the holofilms they hadn't had a chance to watch, and of course spent plenty of time in their suite. Siri called her mother from the pool to check on Isabelle and her mother told her that the baby was just fine, even though she was upset a little more than usual without her parents there.

When the day came to check out of the resort, Siri found that she was fine with going. As amazing at it had been, she'd never been able to relax for weeks at a time and was ready to get back to Isabelle. They still went back to the Temple fairly slowly, knowing they had the rest of their lives to spend together there.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

A/N This is the last time I'm skipping ahead in time. Can you believe I only have two more chapters after this?

_Three Years Later_

"Mommy?" Siri woke up with a start and a realization that she was being poked. There in the darkness was Isabelle, who had grown into a lovely strawberry blonde little girl. "Mommy?" she asked again, and Siri could tell she was worried about something. Isabelle rarely came into her bedroom in the middle of the night which was in itself a concern for Siri that she would come in now.

"I'm up, Isabelle," she said quietly, trying not to wake Obi-Wan, who she could sense was sound asleep next to her. "What's wrong?"

"I had a dream that you were a pirate." If Siri was startled before, she was upset now. Had the Force given Isabelle a dream of Zora? Not that she doubted it was possible – she had seen too much of what the Force could do for that – but why would the Force give Isabelle this dream at this time? She was sure it wouldn't be simply to mentally torture Isabelle, even though that seemed to be the first effect.

"Did you, honey?" she asked, trying to stay calm for Isabelle's sake. "Let's go to the living room where we can talk without waking Daddy up." The two of them walked to the living room and the two of them sat on the couch.

"Were you really a pirate, Mommy?" Isabelle asked as soon as they were seated, looking like she was trying to connect the dream to her familiar mother in her night clothes in the living room in the Temple.

"That's not as easy question to answer," Siri said, taking a deep breath. "I did pretend to be a pirate for a long time to try and stop some real pirates. But I was really a Jedi the entire time." She'd never thought about how to explain that particular mission to a three year old. She never thought she would have to, although she assumed that Isabelle would eventually learn about it.

"You didn't look like you were trying to stop them," said Isabelle accusingly. She looked like she was about to burst into tears at the thought of what a horrible person her mother turned out to be.

Siri was determined to explain everything in a tone that Isabelle could understand before those tears fell. If they did, Siri thought that she just might start to cry as well due to being unable to help her daughter process the dream and her own unresolved feelings about the mission. "I'm sure. What happened in the dream?" Siri braced herself for the horrible memory she was sure she was about to relive. But she might as well find out exactly what Isabelle had seen to know what she should say.

"You were in a ship with a bad man and there were people and other beings in the cargo hold who wanted to get out. You didn't let them out." Isabelle sounded horrified, and Siri could of course understand why. How was she going to explain this to Isabelle? What did young children know about undercover operations, even though so many of them seemed to like to play dress up games?

As it happened, Siri thought she remembered that particular incident, which happened after one of Krayn's raids. Those were always about the hardest times to not reveal herself to Krayn as she couldn't stand the idea of him getting more beings for his spice production factories and to sell at slave markets.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, Isabelle. But I think I remember that. It was part of my Jedi Trials." Siri was amazed at how calm she sounded, even if she didn't feel particularly calm. Maybe more years had passed since then than she realized. Or maybe she was just still sleepy.

"What all the padawans are going to have to do if they want to be a knight?" Isabelle was always curious about the lives of the Jedi Padawans and Knights, and couldn't soak up enough information about the Code, missions, and expected behavior for when she was an adult. So Siri wasn't surprised that Isabelle had heard of the Trials.

"That's right. You have to show what you learned during your training, push your body to its limits, face your fears, and face the dark side in you."

Isabelle was wide eyed."You didn't look afraid. You looked like what was going on was normal."

"I was more afraid than you think. Sometimes we have to keep going even when we're afraid. That's what courage is." It was never too early for Isabelle to hear that lesson.

"And what were you afraid of, Mommy?" This sounded almost like it was getting to be a story for Isabelle.

"Of being helpless. Of the bad man finding out who I was. Of never getting back here again, to my life and your daddy." It had been on that mission that Siri had been more paranoid and realizing of how much she hated feeling helpless than she ever had in her life.

"And me?" Isabelle asked.

"You weren't born yet. The Council wouldn't send me on a mission like that now because I'm taking care of you."

"So I don't have to worry about you leaving to be a pirate?" Isabelle looked relieved.

"Not at all. Should I take you back to bed now?"

"All right," said Isabelle reluctantly. Siri would be able to tell that this conversation wasn't over for good even without using the Force to sense Isabelle's state.

"You need your sleep," Siri said. "Ask me and Daddy more about this in the morning." She then picked Isabelle up and twirled her around in the way that always got giggles out of her. They then went back to Isabelle's bedroom. Siri started to tuck her in, and when she was sure that Isabelle was calm enough, she went back to bed, wondering why the Force had sent Isabelle that dream.

When she got back to bed, Obi-Wan was awake. "Are you and Isabelle all right?" he asked.

"The Force sent our three year old a dream about the mission to bring down the Krayn organization," Siri said. She sighed as she got under the covers and wondered if sleep would come again that night.

"I'm sorry. How upset is she?"

"I tried to explain and sent her back to bed. Hopefully she'll get back to sleep soon." Siri wished she had a better answer than that to give about what would happen in the morning.

"But she must have a high midichlorian count if the Force can send her a dream like that," Obi-Wan sounded almost like he was in awe. "We should have the Council give her the ability test soon."

"We should," said Siri. "I'm sure she could be an amazing Jedi Knight. She's already using the Force so naturally."

The dream had been far from the first incident involving the Force in Isabelle's short life. She already could seem to know things she shouldn't and move objects if she heavily concentrated on them. Her stuffed animals had gone flying across her bedroom more times than Siri had kept track of. She'd also seemed interested in her parent's lightsabers to the point that they were locked up to keep Isabelle from finding one and accidentally hurting herself.

"What do you remember about your Youngling test?" asked Obi-wan.

"I still remember being so excited about that," Siri said. "I was barely older than Isabelle is now, and I just ran into Council Chambers when I finished the puzzle. I just had to show off." Siri smiled at one of the earliest times that she remembered.

"I can see that," said Obi-Wan. "I remember being so frustrated solving that puzzle. I was so proud when I finally finished it, but I have a feeling I didn't show that to the Council as much as you did."

They were quiet for a minute after that, and then Obi-Wan spoke again. "But are you all right after Isabelle's dream brought back those memories?"

"I'm still haunted by them, and I suppose I always will be," said Siri. "But I've gotten to where I can sleep at night knowing what happened."

"I'm so proud that you were able to survive that mission," said Obi-Wan. "Just think of how many beings have their own lives now, who would be in slavery or dead otherwise."

"True, but the Council isn't kidding about calling the fourth Trial the Mirror."

"You had an unusually hard one as you had to live it day in and day out for so long." Obi-Wan sounded sympathetic.

"I suppose, and it scared me out of my cockiness about the Dark Side," Siri continued. "I used to think that I could never be seriously tempted by it."

"Not even the greatest among us is immune to Dark Side temptations," Obi-Wan said." We're just able to overcome them." And Siri knew that her husband was right. The Dark Side certainly did seem to try and find weaknesses and use them to tempt all the Jedi as much as possible at times they were feeling weak.

A thought occurred to Siri just as she was about to say goodnight to Obi-Wan. "I hope Isabelle doesn't think I'm a horrible person."

"I'm sure she doesn't after you told her you were on a mission." Obi-Wan could be so practical at times. It was both one of the aspects she loved about him and one that she could find just infuriating at times.

"You think she's ready to understand that distinction?" Siri asked, not being completely sure about that.

"Yes," said Obi-Wan. "Otherwise why would the Force send her that dream? It knows she's ready for it."

Siri hoped that Obi-Wan was right. It had never occurred to her before this night that the mission could cause mother-daughter tension, and she hoped that it wouldn't start now that Isabelle knew that her mother had lived as a pirate.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

The next morning, the mood in the Kenobi household was still a little tense, but at least it was manageable enough that Siri was able to get Isabelle ready for school with few problems. Isabelle enjoyed school and playing with the younglings her own age most of the time. Siri was glad she seemed to be doing well in her clan so far and wasn't a shy girl, even though she wasn't the most popular one.

Well, Siri hadn't been the most popular girl either, and she liked to think she'd turned out successfully somehow. She wouldn't give up her family or being a Jedi for anything.

When Siri dropped Isabelle off at class, she noticed that Ferus Olin was on the other side of the classroom with some of the older younglings. She hadn't forgotten him at all in the time that had passed and was just becoming more and more sure that she should take him on as a padawan. So she went over to talk to him even though Isabelle wasn't old enough yet to be embarrassed by her mother being around.

"Hi Ferus," she said, wondering if he even remembered her name or how strange this would seem to him.  
>"Hi Master Kenobi," said Ferus, coming over to her. "Is there something you wanted to ask me about?"<p>

"I was wondering if any of the Masters had talked to you about being their padawan," said Siri.

Ferus's eyes went down. "No, though I'm still a few years away from having to go to the Ag Corps. I haven't given up hope yet."

"You shouldn't," said Siri. "This will probably sound strange, but I happened to notice you answering questions one day and was impressed. You somehow reminded me of me at your age."

"Thank you," said Ferus, who didn't seem to think that sounded strange at all. Siri was close to sighing a sigh of relief that this was the case.

"You're welcome," said Siri. "I remember answering a lot of questions in class even though I wasn't showing off. You seemed to be the same way."

"I guess," said Ferus. "I just like to show what I know and keep interested in class, but sometimes I don't answer because I don't want to be doing that every time."

"And so," said Siri quickly before Ferus went back to his friends or she lost her nerve, "I wanted you to know you're right in not giving up hope. Isabelle's still young, but I'm almost ready to take a padawan and would love to train you."

"Really?" asked Ferus. "That would be so amazing. Everyone knows about your undercover missions and how good you are with a lightsaber and all."

"Glad you know something about me," said Siri before her list of accomplishments grew."We'll talk later. Why don't you go back to your friends now as I've got to go to work. But I'm glad that you're interested."

"I'm interested, all right," said Ferus before he headed back to his group to tell them the news. Siri could hear them ask Ferus what Siri had wanted and there were some excited congratulatory sounds after he told them. Siri had to smile at knowing that Ferus seemed happy about her being his Master.

That's when Siri went back to her day jobs around the Temple – she'd been promoted beyond odd jobs when it became clear that her going on fewer missions wasn't just temporary – with some things to think about. First, she'd have to think about how she was going to teach all she'd been taught about the Force and completing missions successfully and making a lightsaber. Second, she'd have to figure out how to repair things with Isabelle if it turned out that Isabelle was still upset about the knowledge of her previous mission. There were only so many ways she could explain what happened, and she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do if Isabelle didn't accept any of them.

When she talked to Obi-Wan about this on her lunch break, he had a suggestion.

"Let's take her to the holozoo so she can see the animals," he said. "That way we can spend some time as a family and give her plenty of time to ask more questions while we're looking at the animals. Besides, we can tell her that she's where her parents got engaged."

"That's a good idea," said Siri. "I haven't been there since that trip. I suppose I've been busy with Isabelle and work." She had never been one to put many things in her schedule just so she could have fun.

"And I bet she'll be excited about going." Obi-Wan sounded happy about taking Isabelle as well.

"I bet she will," said Siri. "She's always excited about leaving the Temple." And it was true – Isabelle was always interested in how people lived outside the Temple. Siri could see her going on missions around the Galaxy learning something new on each planet.

And when Siri picked up Isabelle at her clan and asked her if she wanted to go to the holozoo to see the extinct animals, Isabelle certainly was excited.

"We're getting out of the Temple? And Daddy's coming?"

"That's right. All three of us are going." Siri was glad that Isabelle wanted to go, for they weren't going if she was going to throw a tantrum. And Siri was in the mood to get out of the Temple and do something relaxing.

"And we can spend as much time looking at the animals as we want?" Isabelle sounded as though she thought a catch was coming any minute.

"That's right. We can stay until the holozoo closes."

And shortly after that, they were in Obi-Wan's speeder heading towards the zoo.

"I still haven't forgotten that dream, Mommy," said Isabelle. "But I think I know why you did what you did."

"And why is that?" asked Siri, having no idea what the answer would be. She found herself incredibly interested in a three-year-old's perspective on exactly why she had put herself through that particular hellhole.

"Because Jedi are supposed to help beings and that was the only way to save all of them," said Isabelle. Siri was impressed with that answer.

"That's right honey," Siri said. "But that doesn't make it easy."

"I guess not," said Isabelle with a shrug.

They arrived at the holozoo shortly after that, Siri relieved that Isabelle seemed to be feeling a little better about the whole dream. While she knew that things would be repaired with Isabelle eventually, it was great to see this happen so quickly.

"Did you know this is where I asked your mommy to marry me?" asked Obi-Wan.

Isabelle looked wide-eyed. "Really? You came here?" The three of them spent a lot of time then looking for the exact spot so they could show Isabelle.

"Was I born yet?" asked Isabelle while they were looking. She seemed fascinated with the connection between getting married and having babies. She was especially fascinated with her parent's relationship. They'd already told her how they met and about their first kiss.

"No, you weren't," said Obi-Wan. "But you came along not too long after that." Siri loved how Obi-Wan never tired of answering Isabelle's questions.

Then they found the spot that Siri remembered so clearly. "Kiss Mommy!" called Isabelle after they assured her that this was, in fact, the spot.

Obi-Wan did, not paying attention to the other zoo goers. Siri was just glad Isabelle wasn't in the stage in which parents showing any signs of affection was completely embarrassing. Even though she wanted Isabelle to grow up well, she wasn't looking forward to spending less time with her. So she was enjoying every minute while she had it.

After that, they finally had time to look at the holo animals. Sir had to admit that there were some fascinating looking ones. It was just sad to think that so many were extinct and would never again be seen besides the holo pictures in the zoo.

"Mommy, what does extinct mean?" asked Isabelle, who was able to read quite a few words from the signs.

"That means that this animal all died out," answered Siri. "There aren't any more of them left."

"That's sad," said Isabelle. "I want to see this animal for real." Siri wondered for a brief moment if Isabelle was going to ask if the Force could bring the animal back to life. She didn't particularly want to explain the Jedi position on death at the moment, but was determined to answer any question that Isabelle had. However, Isabelle for once stayed quiet.

"I do too," said Siri. "And the whole thing is sad. That sign says that this animal only lived in part of one planet. Then people and other intelligent beings built over it, and the animal had no place to live."

"The people didn't know that the animal lived there?" Isabelle sounded like she was sure that anyone with an ounce of intelligence would know this.

"They did. They just weren't thinking or didn't care."

"How could someone not care about animals? They're living too, and this one's so cute." Isabelle was starting to sound absolutely horrified.

"I know, sometimes people get selfish. That's all I can say," said Siri. The three of them then moved on to the next animal, where Isabelle had more questions. Siri could tell by the type she was asking that Isabelle was really thinking about this. It was great to see her growing up so well.

By the time that they had gone through the holozoo, they were sure that Isabelle had learned a lot about animals. More importantly, though, they had spent time as a family outside their quarters. Between two busy parents they didn't get enough time for this. Siri made a mental note that they should get out more often and not wait for Isabelle to have a nightmare before doing it again.


	29. Chapter 29

A/N: This is the end )-: Hope all my readers enjoyed. And have a Happy New Year!

Chapter 29

It was the week after that Isabelle was scheduled to take her test with the Council. Siri decided to talk with her about it that morning so she would have some idea of what to expect. After all, Isabelle had never been in front of the Council before.

"First of all, even though it can be scary having the entire Council watching you, this is a good thing. You just have to remember to take a deep breath, go in the middle, take a bow, and they'll explain everything to you." Siri had been doing this for so many years that it was second nature.

"What's a bow, Mommy?" Isabelle asked. Siri showed her what she meant and Isabelle imitated. Isabelle wanted to know how deep she should go and why they had to bow in the first place.

"It's to show respect for the Council,' Siri explained. "And all Jedi are supposed to show respect for them, even Mommy."

"Because they're great Masters with using the Force?" Isabelle asked.

"That's part of it. And they've been put in a position of authority over us. That means they get to tell us what do." It was amazing how Isabelle had Siri explaining so many things that were second nature to her but she'd never thought how to explain.

"Oh. And what are they going to ask me to do?" Isabelle was just fascinated by all of this.

"They're going to ask you to complete a puzzle," Siri said. "Take as much time as you need. I'm sure they have high hopes for you as your daddy and I both completed it so fast."

"What if I can't do the puzzle?" Now Isabelle was starting to sound nervous.

"Don't worry about that. I'm sure that given enough time you can do it. You've already been doing puzzles that are a lot like it without realizing it."

"Really?" Isabelle was starting to sound more hopeful.

"Yep. In the exercises they give to your clan. They give the puzzle to all the younglings to test for Jedi potential. I promise it's not impossible." Siri didn't want Isabelle to be worried about the test and was sure she could complete the puzzle quickly.

"I've done all the puzzles they give to the clan," said Isabelle. "Most of them are easy." Siri could tell that Isabelle was looking for reassurance that this one wouldn't be harder.

"See," Siri said. "That's great. You've got nothing to worry about."

"All right," said Isabelle. She then went back to getting ready to go with her clan. Siri hoped she hadn't made everything more confusing with her explanation of what was going to happen, but Isabelle seemed just fine. So they went to drop Isabelle off with her clan and let the teacher know that Siri would be back for her as Isabelle had a Council meeting.

"Your first Council meeting, Isabelle," said the teacher. "Aren't you excited?"

"Yep," said Isabelle, a big smile growing on her face as she formed the next sentence. "And my mommy told me what to expect. You go in and bow and they give you a puzzle to do."

"That's right," said the teacher. "All the adults here have been through it and survived. I'm sure you will too."

Siri called Obi-Wan on her lunch break to let her know how she'd explained everything to Isabelle that morning and what Isabelle had said.

"That's great you were able to tell her what to do at her meeting," said Obi-Wan. "I wish someone had been there to explain that to me when I had my puzzle test."

"I had my mother, but I don't remember her telling me that much about it beforehand," said Siri. "She wasn't on the Council yet, but I'm sure she knew what was going to happen. I guess it's supposed to be a surprise." She wondered then if she should have told Isabelle, or if she was supposed to let her go into the Council cold.

"Don't feel bad about telling her," said Obi-Wan. "It's not like you told her how to do the puzzle or anything like that."

"That's true," said Siri. "And I wanted her to know something so she wouldn't be intimidated when she goes in. That's all I meant to tell her."

"I was scared my first time in front of the Council," said Obi-Wan. "It can be tough being in the middle of that room if you don't know what to expect."

"That's what I thought, and I'm not exactly shy," said Siri. "Well, I'm sure Isabelle will be doing just fine this afternoon. She seemed so excited about the whole thing when I dropped her off at her clan this morning." Siri was glad that she had a daughter who was excited about times like these, rather than having to be dragged or hiding behind her. She knew from her experience working in the classroom and watching Isabelle's clan that some of the younglings were like that.

"I'm glad she's excited about that," said Obi-Wan. "She's going to make a fine Knight someday." Obi-Wan had always been such a proud father and he and Isabelle had been close since Isabelle was a baby. Siri was glad they were so close as it meant such a relaxed, yet not too quiet time at their quarters most of the time.

"She really is going to be a fine Jedi," said Siri. "And it's not just her midicholorain count. She's been doing so well in her class and she knows how to ask me the right questions."

"I've noticed that too," said Obi-Wan. "It'll get her further than she knows in life."

"I think asking questions is how I learned everything," Siri said. "I must have just about terrorized my mother on some days."

And just a few hours later, Siri went to pick up Isabelle to take her to the Council Chambers. Siri noticed that Isabelle was being unusually quiet on the way there. She couldn't tell if this was just nervousness or not.

"Mommy? " Isabelle asked. "What if I don't want to be a Jedi when I grow up?" Siri was surprised by the question and thought for a minute about how to answer.

"Of course you do," said Siri. "You're such a natural in clan. Your father and I wouldn't give up being Jedi for anything. You're just going to have to get through the puzzle test, but I know you can do it."

"I guess," said Isabelle. "I mean, I know that I can do this puzzle." Siri wondered if she was a confident as the words sounded however. Isabelle had seemed fine earlier, but Siri knew that facing the moment when it came could be the hardest part, especially for someone as young as Isabelle.

"Sure you can," said Siri. "I promise it's not as hard as it looks."

"That's good," said Isabelle, who actually did start to look a bit relieved.

"Ready?" Siri asked when they got to the door. There was no way she could leave Isabelle there if she was starting to panic.

"Yeah," said Isabelle, who luckily sounded like she actually was doing fine. Maybe she was just lost in thought. Or maybe she was putting on a brave face for her mother. Siri thought both possibilities equally likely.

"I'll be back when you're done," said Siri. "But I have to go back to work now. May the Force be with you."

"Thanks Mommy," said Isabelle, giving Siri an unexpected hug. "But you can go now. I'll be ok."

Siri was glad to hear that Isabelle was at least trying to convince herself of that. She left then to return to work, having a feeling she'd be back to pick up Isabelle soon.

***  
>After her mother left, Isabelle took a deep breath and opened the door to the Council Chambers. There it was, as promised, with the twelve Masters in their circle looking at her kindly. As her mother had told her, she walked straight to the middle and took a bow. The Masters seemed pleased with this.<p>

"Welcome, youngling Isabelle Kenobi," said Master Windu. "We asked you here today to give you the puzzle we give to all the younglings." He then took it out and showed it to her. Isabelle was absolutely fascinated by the looks and number of pieces that it contained. It was larger than she had pictured in her mind from what her mother had told her.

"I am happy to solve it for you, Masters," she said, using the respectful tone she had learned in her clan. She was determined not to embarrass herself in front of the Council. She knew that they were the ones in charge of the entire Order and the ones who gave her parents their missions. And in her world, embarrassment was just about the worst possible outcome. That was the worst part about what she was considering doing, but it was what she felt that she had to do if she was going to make her own choices as a grownup.

"You can take it," said Master Windu. "Just complete it and bring it back in here when you're done."

"Of course, Masters," said Isabelle. "I'll be right back with the puzzle." She then went and took the puzzle, watching it the entire time as she left the Council Chambers.

When she was alone, she started to assemble the pieces. At first the entire puzzle seemed hopeless, but she was able to do it piece by piece. It didn't seem to take very long to complete, but that could have been because she was so intent on it she didn't notice the time passing. And she stopped to admire the completed puzzle with a satisfied smile on her face. She was glad that she had been able to finish it, like all the other younglings.

And then Isabelle tossed the puzzle over, letting the thousand pieces fall onto the floor.


End file.
